9% yearly growth rate needed for Zimbabwe to achieve Vision 2030

The Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) launched by the World Bank (WB) has said that Zimbabwe needs to sustain productivity growth rates of between eight to nine percent annually for the next seven years if the upper- middle income economy (UMIC) status enshrined under Vision 2030 is to be achieved.

“Achieving such unprecedented rates for Zimbabwe will require dramatic improvement in the policy environment to address the binding constraints to productivity growth,” said the CEM.

The body continued: “The informal sector has been the largest employer in Zimbabwe over the last four decades, suppressing productivity growth and long-term development. Presently, informal activity accounts for nearly two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s output and four-fifths of its employment, which is higher than the average level in Lower-Middle Income Countries and UMICs. Creating more and better jobs in the formal sector will require policies that tackle obstacles to both formal and informal productivity growth.”

The announcement comes as the nation continues to struggle against economic sanctions that have been in place for more than two decades.