The main articles are:
GDP
2020: GDP per capita - $1.1 thousand
2019: Forecast for 6.5% GDP contraction
At the end of 2019, the country's government predicts a decrease in GDP by 6.5%.
2018: GDP $1,269 per person
Inflation
2022: Inflation in November - 269%
Key rate
2023:10% rate cut to 140%
The Central Bank of Zimbabwe in March 2023 lowered by 10% - to 140%.
Monetary system
2024: New Currency Issue - ZiG
In April 2024, Zimbabwe, in its new attempt to end a string of local dollar collapses, replaced it with a new unit called ZiG, which will be backed by a basket of foreign currencies, gold and other precious metals.
2023: Zimbabwe issues gold-backed digital tokens
On May 8, 2023, the Zimbabwean authorities announced the release of a national digital currency backed by gold. It can be used both as a payment instrument and as a means of saving. Read more here.
2022: Civil servants and bank employees demand salaries in US dollars
The threat of a strike in February 2022 responded to the refusal to pay wages in US dollars by employees of Zimbabwe banks. They, following civil servants, demanded to pay them wages in American dollars.
Bank owners rejected their demand and in response offered a one-time increase in salaries in national currency by 61% per year. The value of the Zimbabwean dollar has fallen by almost a third since September 2021 and is trading at 115 per US dollar. Bank employees explain their demand by the fact that the American dollar is used in the country to pay for food, fuel, medicines and school fees.
The Secretary General of the Zimbabwean Union of Banks and Allied Workers, Peter Mutas, said that a 61% increase in wages per year will increase salaries only to Z $41,782 ($362). While according to the Zimbabwe Consumer Council, an ordinary family of six needs at least Z $73,000 ($635).
2019: Zimbabwe dollar relaunch after 10-year hiatus
In 2019, after hyperinflation reaching tens of billions of percent, the Central Bank of Zimbabwe is trying to restore the financial system and return to issuing its own national currency - the Zimbabwean dollar, whose circulation after a 10-year break resumed in the summer of 2019.
From 2009 to 2019, in Zimbabwe, the US dollar, euro, British pounds sterling and currencies of neighboring African states were used for payments.
In June, the Zimbabwean Central Bank restarted the national dollar, the exchange rate of which by November 2019 collapsed 360 times: from 1 to 360 Zimbabwean dollars per American.
2009: Official rejection of its own currency
In 2009, the Zimbabwean government was forced to abandon the national currency and officially legalize the use of foreign money, primarily the US dollar and the South African rand. This sharply reduced inflation and stabilized the economy, but deprived the country of monetary sovereignty.
2008: Zimbabwe dollar (ZWD) becomes symbol of hyperinflation
Until the mid-2000s, the country used the Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD), which eventually became a symbol of hyperinflation. At the end of 2008, price increases reached catastrophic proportions: annual inflation exceeded 500 billion percent. Trillions of dollars appeared in circulation, but they rapidly depreciated and practically lost the function of money.
Power
2020: Very low energy consumption per capita
and
2019: Electrification rate 53%
2018: Petrol price
Transport
2025: Rail gauge - 1067 mm
Communication
2019: Total internet blackout during unrest
In January 2019, the internet was completely disconnected in Zimbabwe. This was done after the start of riots in the country, the organizers of which coordinated protests through social networks and instant messengers.
All four telecommunications operators operating in Zimbabwe have been instructed by the government to stop providing internet services to the public. After that, the hacker group Anonymous conducted a series of DDoS attacks on government sites, which stopped working as a result of cyber attacks. In particular, the resource of the reserve bank of Zimbabwe "fell."
 | We saw innocent Zimbabwe being killed. We saw oppression and tyranny. We've seen people being oppressed for fighting for freedom. We can't stand it. As with the Sudanese government, we have successfully shut down more than 72 government websites in Zimbabwe. This is just the beginning. Your banking system is also about to fall. Government of Zimbabwe, you have become the enemy of Anonymous! Your systems are in danger, "reads a post one Anonymous member wrote on the forum. |  |
The public organization NetBlocks, which monitors the observance of rights in the field of digital technologies and registers restrictions on access to Internet services, calculated that the disconnection of Zimbabwe from the Internet resulted in losses to the economy of $17 million.
Earlier, the Zimbabwean authorities announced more than double the price of gasoline and diesel fuel, which caused a wave of discontent among citizens. According to authorities, during the riots in the country, real estate was destroyed, vehicles were burned and property was destroyed for a total of $800 million. At least 700 people were detained for participating in the riots.
The human rights organization Access Now noted that Internet blocking during protests is increasingly practiced in the world, and every year the number of such cases is increasing.[1]
2018
The World's Most Expensive Mobile Internet
Internet penetration rate - 21%
Information Technology
2022: More than 5 startups
Oligarchs
2020: Oligarchs Billy Rautenbakh, Tafadzwa Musarara and Kuda Tagwirei
Emmerson's "Crocodile" Mnangagwa did not succeed in the "Second Republic," Zangaro Today noted in March 2020. A man of difficult fate with an underground past turned out to be completely unprepared to govern the country in peacetime and assembled a professional unsuitable team. Zimbabwe is experiencing a severe drought over the past 30 years, inflation has exceeded 440%, and 60% of citizens are on the verge of hunger.
In addition to all the woes, the economy is rapidly cartelizing. The fuel market and scarce foreign currency were cleaned up by the oligarchs Billy Rautenbakh, Tafadzwa Musarara and Kuda Tagwirei, associated with the president.
The first violin among them is played by oil baron Kudakwashe (Kuda) Tagwirei, head of Sakunda Holdings and Mnangagwa's confidant, acting as his economic adviser. Its influence is so great that they talk about the real seizure of the state - by analogy with the scandalous experience in neighboring South Africa.
Tagvirea's reputation is extremely ambiguous. The head of the parliamentary reporting committee, Tendai Biti, has already accused the businessman of embezzling dollars US 3 billion from the Command Agriculture state program, operated by Sakunda, which is a serious crime in a drought and impending hunger. In addition, even the scandalous Trafigura Group decided to buy out 51% of Sakunda's share in fuel imports, not wishing to associate itself more with such a "toxic" partner.
However, Tagwirei dug too deep and took root in all spheres of the economy, including the mineral business. So, through his Landela Mining, the oligarch acquired a 50% stake in Great Dyke Investments, the largest platinum project involving the Russian Vi Holding. In addition, Tagwirei gained loyalty to the ZANU-PF Politburo by purchasing cars for its members and paying them salaries. Therefore, members of the ZANU-PF youth league - the "Young Turks" - were expelled from the party after accusing Tagwirei of corruption and the collapse of the country.
Mining
2025
9th in gold mining in Africa - 48 tons
Illegal gold mining continues after ban
In eastern Zimbabwe, on the banks of the Mutare River, in September 2025, dozens of men are involved in illegal gold mining. From morning to late evening, they wash sand in hopes of extracting tiny grains of gold. Shovels, picks and plastic basins are used, and with them mercury and cyanide. This is how metal is mined, which on the black market is estimated to be more expensive than any promises of legal labor.
Gold washing has been banned since the end of 2024. But the law remains inactive, as the police are actively involved in mining schemes. A few meters from the mines, patrols accept cash, and work continues as if nothing has happened.
Illegal mining negatively affects the environmental situation in the country. Traces of destruction are visible along the entire course: sand embankments, dry channels, cloudy water with a sharp chemical smell. A particularly difficult situation is observed in Penalong, where industrial mines are adjacent to artisanal developments.
Dozens of illegal artelists dig dumps right by the roads, cut the floodplain into ditches and pump water around the clock. In the Oji region, water becomes thick brown, and chemical waste reaches villages that have long been deprived of access to clean water for irrigation and for livestock.
For most miners, this work was not a choice, but the only chance to survive in a crumbling economy. The scheme, in which gold is mined at risk to health and nature and then ferried across the border to Mozambique, reflects a deep crisis of government control.
Some of the mined metal goes to licensed dealers from Harare and in all likelihood ends up at Fidelity Gold Refinery, a refinery controlled by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
2022
Diamond production - 4.5 million carats worth $424 million
Among the top 10 leading countries in the production of critical raw materials
2022:800 tons of lithium produced and ban on its export introduced
In late 2022, the Zimbabwean government banned lithium exports. The government said it was losing €1.7bn to exporting it as raw materials rather than recycling. Over two years, the price of lithium has risen by 1100%.
2021: 1,200 tonnes of lithium produced
2019: Memorandum with Russia on uranium exploration
In August 2019, Russia and Zimbabwe agreed on cooperation in the field of nuclear power.
The countries signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on the "peaceful use of nuclear energy" during Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo's visit to Russia.
The agreement includes exploration of uranium deposits, as well as research in the field of a peaceful atom.
This is one of Zimbabwe's steps to tackle the most complex energy crisis since independence. After all, the main source of energy in the country - the dam on Lake Kariba can be closed in the coming years.
Agriculture and famine
2020: Drought and food crisis
In March 2020, Zimbabwe was on the verge of famine. The cause was the worst drought over the past 40 years. Already 7.7 million Zimbabweans, or every second resident of the country, face food shortages and spend 2-3 days without food. In the capital Harare, people are fighting in queues for shipments of corn and cereals at state-run retailers.
With the arrival of drought, the government is desperate to tackle the looming man-made disaster.
The government is considering returning white farmers who lost their land following the spontaneous land reform of 1998-2002. In fact, monetary compensation to former owners has been provided for a long time (25 million were allocated for them in the current budget dollars). But the government, as always, has no money. Therefore, a recently published new plan provides for the allocation of land to 800 former owners on a long-term lease.
In general, all three strategies blindly follow neoliberal orthodoxy - they are aimed at squeezing out the peasantry and replacing it with large commercial agricultural holdings associated with the government, noted in Zangaro Today.
2019
Belarusian agricultural holdings receive land for soybean cultivation
In the experience of creating agricultural holdings, she volunteered to help, with Belarus which the Zimbabwean authorities concluded agreements in September 2019 in the amount of 350 million dollars US dollars. The Independent newspaper reports on plans to allocate farmland to Belarusian state-owned companies for agricultural complexes for growing wheat, soybeans, meat and dairy products and poultry. "Agro-industrial holding of the Office of the President of the Republic of Belarus" has already received 10 thousand hectares of land in Mbire district for growing soybeans and building a meat and dairy farm.
Low use of pesticides in agriculture
2016: Government unsuccessfully tries to restore maize farming
After a sharp announcement of the production of maize and corn, the government came to its senses too late, only in 2016 approved the Command Agriculture program - import substitution by subsidizing large corn farmers. But the program degenerated into a strategy of acquiring loyalty by the ruling party and the president's inner circle: over 45% of participating farmers in 2016-2017. turned out to be uncredited.
2008: Under the influence of the IMF, farmers are betting on export tobacco to the detriment of food crops - wheat and maize
Zimbabwe's more or less balanced and diversified economy destroyed reconciliation with the West in 2008 and the opening up of the market to foreign capital and IMF experts. Under their influence, farmers then relied on export tobacco to the detriment of food crops - wheat and maize.
2002: Seizures of "white" farms
Legalized in 2002, the spontaneous seizures of "white" farms led to international sanctions and the isolation of Zimbabwe. But there was also a positive effect. Thanks to the "black redistribution," thousands of households have found the desired land, and with it the long-awaited airbag from fluctuations in market prices.
Foreign trade
2025: Nigeria and Zimbabwe join Russian A7 financial platform to pay for exports and imports quickly
Nigeria and Zimbabwe have joined the Russian international financial platform A7 to make settlements on export-import transactions. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the plenary meeting of the ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, held on December 19-20, 2025 in Cairo. Read more here.
2023:15% of wheat supplies come from Russia and Ukraine
2018
Platinum is the largest export item
China is the largest trading partner
Consumption
2023: Beef is the most consumed type of meat
2019: Low rice consumption: 4.8 kg per person per year
2018
Vegetable consumption - 16 kg per capita
Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages
Notes
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