Survey reveals top Zim economic drivers
A NATIONAL survey by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has revealed that agriculture, mining, manufacturing, wholesale, and retail are the dominant drivers of the country’s economy.
The findings of the survey, which covers the period 2019 to 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) analysis, were presented during a statistics dissemination meeting in Bulawayo on Tuesday.
ZimStats director-general, Mr Taguma Mahonde, said during the 2019 to 2021 period, growth in quarterly estimates exhibited the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on general economic activity.
ZimStats
During the pandemic-induced lockdown measures the tourism sector was the hardest hit due to local and foreign travel restrictions, which grounded major operations in the sector to a halt.
As a result, the agency said from 2020, the country experienced fluctuating economic growth as the performance dropped to negative digits when compared to the pre-Covid-19 period.
The country, however, started recording positive growth beginning the third quarter of 2021 where it recorded 23,7 percent growth on a quarterly basis and 24,6 GDP growth on a year-on-year basis.
The economy continued to bear the brunt of the pandemic whose adverse effects continued to impact the productive sectors.
“The compilation of QGDP is a response to the increasing demand for high-frequency statistics from stakeholders. Quarterly estimates of GDP are a high-frequency indicator of economic activity, which provides the impetus for timely policy interventions,” said Mr Mahonde.
“The aggregates shown were derived from a wide variety of sources.”
He said in 2022 agriculture, hunting, fishing, and forestry contribution towards the GDP decreased by 13 to 9,7 percent from the $6,35 billion estimated in the first quarter to $7,18 billion in the second-quarter, $6,3 billion in the third quarter, and $6,9 billion in the fourth quarter.
Zimstat Director general Taguma Mahonde
In the extractive sector, mining and quarrying increased its contribution from 1,8 percent in the second quarter to 7,3 percent in the final quarter. The estimations per quarter were $6,8 billion, $6,9 billion, $7,9 billion, and $8,5 billion respectively.
The manufacturing sector dropped from 28,1 percent in the first quarter to -0,8 percent during the fourth quarter. The estimates per quarter were $4,2 billion, $5,4 billion, $7,9 billion, and $7,9 million respectively, said Zimstat.
On wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles indicated growth from 1,6 percent to 25,8 percent. The market estimates were as follows: $9,6 billion, $9,7 billion, $10,4 billion, and $13,1 billion per quarter respectively.
Other key sectors include construction, education, transport and storage, accommodation and food, information, and technology, human health, and social welfare activities to mention but a few.
Zimstat Director general Taguma Mahonde
Meanwhile, Mr Mahonde said the national statistics agency would conduct an economic census meant to establish the structure of the economy, which will help to feed into the GDP figures.
He also said lack of record keeping from small enterprises affects the capturing of data from the informal sector players. However, he said ZimStat conducts the household survey every five years, which is then used when conducting GDP surveys. —ebusinessweekly
