Claim “The Permanent Secretary of Information Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana claimed that Zimbabwe’s 2023 GDP is now at US$66 billion.
“So, in 2017 Zimbabwe had a GDP of US$17 billion. In 2023 it’s now US$66 billion. What an astronomical rise under the leadership of President @edmnangagwa. 288% in just 6 years! (Leave the calculators alone, ye of little faith),” he wrote on his X account.
Verdict: Misleading
Contacted for a comment, the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) noted that the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) stats show that for the year 2022, the GDP was about $18 billion.
“The 2022 Public Debt Bulletin shows that our total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt of $18 billion was 99.6 percent of GDP,” they said.
Another Economic Expert, Dr Prosper Chitambara said it would be misleading as the figures are from different sources.
“The US$66 billion figure is from an organisation called World Economics, they have come up with that estimate for 2022 and they are saying that for 2023 it will be about US $67 billion which is about 1.5 percent growth, but the US$17 billion is the official figure from the World Bank.”
“It will be misleading to compare the two figures because of the different sources and methodologies and considerations used to come up with those figures for example the World Economic estimate they have tried to estimate the size of the informal economy and of cause Zimbabwe is one of the biggest informal economies in the World so they are taking into account that, so then that gives us such a figure,” he said.
Dr Chitambara added, “Given the huge informal economy, that is how they probably came with that estimate of US$66 billion for last year, you can’t really say our GDP has risen from US$17 billion to US$66 billion because those are different sources, methodologies that were used and different approaches in coming up with the GDP estimates.”
