Zimbabwe posted a US$469 million trade deficit in the first quarter of the year, a government statistics agency said Tuesday.
The Zimbabwe Statistical Office (Zimstats) said the country exported goods and s ervices worth US$617,579,723 between January and March, against imports of US$1,087,277,312.
It said the deficit had widened compared to the last quarter of last year, but d id not give reasons why this had grown.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Zimbabwe posted a trade deficit of US$374 mi llion.
Zimstats said South Africa, Zimbabwe’s southern neighbour, was the country’s big gest trading partner in the first quarter of the year.
More than half of the country’s imports were from South Africa, and in return it exported goods and services worth US$390 million to its neighbour.
South African exports to Zimbabwe in the period amounted to US$562,820,421.
Zimbabwe is emerging from a decade-long economic slump in which the economy cont racted by more than 50 percent.
It expects the economy to grow by seven percent this year.
