As the year comes to an end, we take stock of the key macro-economic trends and developments as well as preview the year 2024.
The year 2023 has been a very eventful but challenging year for many on account of a number of factors.
At the global level, the global economy continues to experience slowing economic growth, high levels of inflation, high interest rates which affects the costs of borrowing, and rising public and private indebtedness.
The World Bank projects global economic growth to slow down to 2. 1% in 2023 from an estimated 3. 1% in 2022.
Downside risks for the global economy include: geopolitical tensions (eg, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the war between Israel and Hamas), volatile commodity and energy prices and debt distress in most economies.
Zimbabwe’s economic growth in 2023 is officially projected to slow down to 5. 5% down from an estimated 6. 5% in 2022 and 7. 8% in 2021.
According to a World Bank report titled Electrifying Growth Through Reliable and Universal Energy Access, Zimbabwe’s economy has seen a strong rebound since the Covid-19 pandemic, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
However, economic growth in the country over the past years has neither been employment-intensive nor poverty-reducing.
Sustained economic growth is vital to sustaining financing of critical sector such as health, social protection, and water and sanitation.
The economy experienced chronic high inflation throughout the year.
The economy recorded annual inflation rate of 101,5% in January 2023 and by June the annual inflation rate had reached 175,8%.
By November 2023, the annual inflation rate had slowed down to 21,6% largely on account of the migration to the geometric aggregation methodology by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat).
Zimbabwe has the second highest annual inflation rate in the Sadc region after Malawi whose October 2023 inflation rate was 26,9%. 🔗 Read Full Article
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