MARTIN MAWAYA
HARARE-The finance sector is one of the few sectors from 11 in the country that registered significant growth in 2022 according to the annual GDP data estimates from Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat).
The other three sectors that recorded positive growth rate are information and communication, mining and manufacturing.
According to the statistics published by ZimStat, finance and insurance industry in the country recorded the highest growth of 15.6% in 2022 from 3% in 2021 followed by information and communication on 14.1% in 2022 and 9.8% from the corresponding year.
The mining industry growth for 2022 was 10.5% against the 5.9 recorded the previous year.
The manufacturing industry shows growth of 0.4% as it registered a growth increase of 1.6 in 2022 compared to 1.2 in 2021.
However, electricity supply slumped from 33.9% in 2021 to 3.5% in 2022, with water supply declining from 12,7% in 2021 to 1.7% in the year under review.
Accommodation and food services plummeted by 23.7% in 2022 from 38.9% the previous year, whilst the agriculture sector dropped to 6.2% in 2022 from 17.5% in 2021.
Construction sector growth in the year under review was at 2% compared to 3.5% the corresponding year, with transport and storage slowing down to 6.6% in 2022 from a firm position of 8.5% the previous year.
ZimStat also highlighted that the wholesale and retail trade performance was down in 2022 by 4.6% against 8.1% in 2021.
“In terms of value added, the top 5 contributing industries to GDP were wholesale and retail 18.7%, mining 13.2%, agriculture 12%, manufacturing 11.2% and finance and insurance 8.2%,” said ZimStat director general, Taguma Mahonde in his report.
He said the agriculture sector performance was largely driven by crop production which accounts for 80.5%, with crops such as wheat, maize and soya beans which recorded significant growth in 2022.
Mahonde added that “the mining industry was largely driven by mining of metal ores which accounted for 78.1% of mining value added, including gold, platinum group of metals (PGM) and lithium which recorded significant growth in 2022”.
He said the manufacturing industry was dominated by beverages and tobacco 50.5% as well as food products at 18.5%.
Retail was at 53.9%, wholesale 41.4 and repair motor vehicles 4.8% contribution in the wholesale and retail industry performance.
Mahonde pointed out that “the 2022 GDP at constant prices is estimated at ZWL 225.99 billion. This represents a growth rate of 6.5% from the 2021 estimate of ZWL 212.1 billion”.
