Zimbabwe's economy is growing despite continuing political uncertainty. Following a decade of contraction from 1998 to 2008, Zimbabwe's economy recorded real growth of 6% in 2011. However, the government of Zimbabwe still faces a number of difficult economic problems, including infrastructure and regulatory deficiencies, ongoing indigenization pressure, policy uncertainty, a large external debt burden, and insufficient formal employment. Zimbabwe's 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. The government's subsequent land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products. Until early 2009, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely printed money to fund the budget deficit, causing hyperinflation. Dollarization in early 2009 - which allowed currencies such as the Botswana pula, the South Africa rand, and the US dollar to be used locally - ended hyperinflation and restored price stability but exposed structural weaknesses that continue to inhibit broad-based growth.

In 2009, the Zimbabwean dollar was taken out of circulation, making Zimbabwe's GDP at the official exchange rate a highly inaccurate statistic (2011 est.)

Figures reflect underemployment; true unemployment is unknown and, under current economic conditions, unknowable

$6.586 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$2.151 million (31 December 2008 est.)

Zimbabwe's central bank no longer publishes data on monetary aggregates, except for bank deposits, which amounted to $2.1 billion in November 2010; the Zimbabwe dollar stopped circulating in early 2009; since then, the US dollar and South African rand have been the most frequently used currencies; there are no reliable estimates of the amount of foreign currency circulating in Zimbabwe

$11 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$3.057 million (31 December 2008 est.)

$6.289 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$10.9 billion (31 December 2011)

$11.48 billion (31 December 2010)

$3.83 billion (31 December 2009)

Corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs

Mining (coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, diamonds, clay, numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores), steel; wood products, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages

Platinum, cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing

China 18.1%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 12.5%, South Africa 11.3%, Botswana 11.2%, Italy 6.5% (2011)

Machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels, food products

South Africa 53.9%, China 9.4% (2011)

$461 million (31 December 2011 est.)

$376 million (31 December 2010 est.)

$6.44 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$5.016 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

Zimbabwean dollars (ZWD) per US dollar -

The dollar was adopted as a legal currency in 2009; since then the Zimbabwean dollar has experienced hyperinflation and is essentially worthless