Mindstorm All American 15858 Posts user info edit post |
Oh, let's see what the CIA world factbook has to say about Zimbabwe...
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/zi.html
Quote : | "Economy Overview:
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and bare shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the country's failure to meet budgetary goals. Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 133% at the end of 2004, while the exchange rate fell from 24 Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar to 6,200 in the same time period. The government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs. " |
Quote : | "Some Statistics:
GDP Real Growth Rate: -8.2% (2004 est.)
Unemployment rate: 70% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line: 70% (2002 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 133% (2004 est.)
Budget: revenues: $1.325 billion expenditures: $1.593 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Exchange rates: Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar - 4,303.28 (2004), 697.424 (2003), 55.036 (2002), 55.052 (2001), 44.418 (2000) note: these are official exchange rates, non-official rates vary significantly" |
Gotta love those damn inflation rates. It's a wonder their country doesn't just fall into itself and disappear.8/31/2005 1:09:19 PM |