g history of the country is superimposed on a red
five-pointed star in the center of the triangle, which symbolizes
peace; green symbolizes agriculture, yellow - mineral wealth, red -
blood shed to achieve independence, and black stands for the native
people

Economy Zimbabwe

Economy - overview:
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult
economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal
deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and bare
shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of
dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been
suspended because of the country's failure to meet budgetary goals.
Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 383% in 2003,
and is expected to reach 700% in 2004. The government's land reform
program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the
commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and
foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $24.03 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
-13.6% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $1,900 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 17.3%
industry: 24.5%
services: 58.3% (2003)

Investment (gross fixed):
8.9% of GDP (2003)

Population below poverty line:
70% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.97%
highest 10%: 40.42% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
50.1 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
384.7% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
4.17 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 66%, industry 10%, services 24% (1996)

Unemployment rate:
70% (2002 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.568 billion
expenditures: $2.004 billion, including capital expenditures of NA
(2003)

Public debt:
41.3% of GDP (2003)

Agriculture - products:
corn, cotton, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs

Industries:
mining (coal, gold, copper, nickel, tin, clay, numerous metallic
and nonmetallic ores), steel, wood products, cement, chemicals,
fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
-14.7% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
6.735 billion kWh (2001)