Zimbabwe's economy has turned around in the past four months, with employment and industrial capacity use doubling and once record-breaking inflation under control, the minister for economic planning said on Tuesday. The recovery follows an effective dollarisation of the economy, which has helped spur foreign investment and prompted the large Zimbabwean exile community to send more remittances home, planning and investment minister Elton Mangoma said.
"When we came into office in February, we had employment of six percent and capacity utilisation of less than 10 percent," he told Reuters during a mining conference in London. "Our production capacity has now gone up to between 20 and 30 percent and employment is now around 15 percent, and those who are employed are a lot more secure because they can see that the companies are a lot more steady," he said.
Over the same period, since the new unity government under Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai took office in mid-February, inflation has fallen rapidly from its once astronomical 200 million percent, while growth has begun to pick up. "This year we are looking at growth rates of anything between three and five percent," said Mangoma, a businessman before joining the government after a power-sharing agreement was struck between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe.