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Zimbabwe's economy '4.7% larger'
05 Oct 2018 at 17:32hrs | Views
Zimbabwe's economy is now 40% larger after their statistics agency rebased key data.
The Zimbabwe Mail quoted Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube as saying, "Our economy is bigger than we think and the new calculations took into account the large informal sector for the first time."
Zimstat embarked on a programme to revamp all its statistical systems in 2011 to 2013 by carrying out censuses and surveys which were used as building blocks to the rebasing of GDP figures to 2012 base year.
According to Zimstat, the increased output across all the sectors brought about by more data being made available when a bottom up approach was used in collecting data for the Central Business Register which consequently had the same effect when the Survey of Services survey was conducted.
Using the rebased figures, in 2017, the nominal GDP grew from $20.55 billion in 2016 to $22.04 billion, a growth rate of 7.3%. Correspondingly, the real GDP grew from $18.32 billion in 2016 to $19.18 billion giving a growth of 4.7%.
The per capita GDP was $1 511 in 2017 as compared to $1 441 in 2016, which is a growth rate of 4.9%.
According to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, the country's GDP is expected to close the year at $25.77 billion at a growth rate of 6.3%. In 2019, the economy is set to grow 9% on GDP of $28.9 billion.
Matt Mossman from African Arguments told Bloomberg in 2014 that:
"GDP rebasings] provide a clearer look at an economy, and in particular they capture where the most growth is coming from. But they also highlight the problem with GDP as a statistic – it's never accurate, and often, in developing countries, it's not even close."
Zimbabwe's economy faced a myriad of challenges under former President Robert Mugabe including high levels of unemployment and poverty which newly-elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to end.
The finance minister had earlier announced that the economy will grow by 6.3% this financial year buoyed by the agriculture and mining sector.
The Zimbabwe Mail quoted Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube as saying, "Our economy is bigger than we think and the new calculations took into account the large informal sector for the first time."
Zimstat embarked on a programme to revamp all its statistical systems in 2011 to 2013 by carrying out censuses and surveys which were used as building blocks to the rebasing of GDP figures to 2012 base year.
According to Zimstat, the increased output across all the sectors brought about by more data being made available when a bottom up approach was used in collecting data for the Central Business Register which consequently had the same effect when the Survey of Services survey was conducted.
Using the rebased figures, in 2017, the nominal GDP grew from $20.55 billion in 2016 to $22.04 billion, a growth rate of 7.3%. Correspondingly, the real GDP grew from $18.32 billion in 2016 to $19.18 billion giving a growth of 4.7%.
The per capita GDP was $1 511 in 2017 as compared to $1 441 in 2016, which is a growth rate of 4.9%.
Matt Mossman from African Arguments told Bloomberg in 2014 that:
"GDP rebasings] provide a clearer look at an economy, and in particular they capture where the most growth is coming from. But they also highlight the problem with GDP as a statistic – it's never accurate, and often, in developing countries, it's not even close."
Zimbabwe's economy faced a myriad of challenges under former President Robert Mugabe including high levels of unemployment and poverty which newly-elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to end.
The finance minister had earlier announced that the economy will grow by 6.3% this financial year buoyed by the agriculture and mining sector.
Source - BBC
