Report by the WTO Secretariat

Zimbabwe’s renewed commitment to fiscal discipline and its de facto adoption of the U.S. dollar as legal tender as a result of the implementation of its multi-currency system in February 2009 have brought some encouraging signs towards macroeconomic stabilization. Nevertheless, Zimbabwe’s economy is still in a fragile state with high unemployment, depleted international reserves, and unsustainably high external debt, including a major accrual of arrears. A fractious socio-political environment, combined with a controversial land reform and measures in favour of indigenization, has triggered the withdrawal of support from the international community and cast a shadow over property rights, thereby undermining the business environment, with a devastating impact on Zimbabwe’s economic performance and social indicators over the past decade.