The manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe, one of the biggest contributors to gross domestic product, declined seven percent last year, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), reported here Thursday.
In a report, CZI, which groups Zimbabwe’s big manufacturers, said last year’s sectoral decline was a reversal of a 3.2 percent growth the sector registered in 2005.
As a result, the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product last year similarly shrunk to 14.3 percent compared to 17.3 percent in 2005, CZI said after carrying out a nation-wide survey of business activities in the manufacturing industry.
The survey found capacity utilisation in the sector had gone down to 33.8 percent last year from 35.8 percent in 2005.
On the other hand, investment in the sector declined from 62.2 percent in 2005 to 44 percent last year, also contributing to the sector’s decline.
The CZI cited high inflation, currently running at more than 4 500 percent, shortages of foreign currency, power outages, lack of fuel and high interest rates, among other things, for the manufacturing sector’s slump.
This mirrors Zimbabwe’s whole economy, which has been in recession for the last years consecutively.
