Zimbabwe’s re-industrialisation drive is taking shape with capital goods such as machinery and equipment dominating the country’s import bill in a development which shows long term investments in the local industry.
The country’s import bill for April this year stood at about US$490 million, with capital goods dominating.
Announcing trade and inflation data on Monday, Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) Director for Macro Economics, Mrs Tafadzwa Bandama revealed that increased production and availability of local goods has resulted in less imports of goods such as groceries.
“The external trade statistics report traditionally produced a summary of monthly external trade data that reflected a steady drop in inflation with consumer goods imports, being on a downward trend between January and April.
“Machinery and equipment dominated imports at 16,3 percent followed by vehicles at 7,3 percent, electrical machinery 5,5 percent, cereals, maize, rice, wheat at 5,3 percent.
“On the export front, minerals dominated at 23,2 percent followed by tobacco and cotton.”
On inflation, the ZimStat director outlined how prices slowed down this month.
She said month-on-month inflation for June 2021 was 3,9 percent compared to 2,5 percent for May 2021, while year-on-year inflation was 106,6 percent compared to 161,9 percent in May 2021.
Government has with effect from this month started releasing provincial inflation data.
“In view of government’s devolution policy, ZimStat will be publishing inflation statistics by province in addition to national inflation statistics with effect from June 2021,” she said.
The trade and inflation statistics reveal that in the past few years, the country had become a net importer of consumer related goods which could be manufactured locally.
