The economy of Zimbabwe has shrunk significantly after 2000, resulting in a desperate situation for the country and widespread poverty from among others 80% unemployment. The participation from 1998 to 2002 in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo set the stage for this deterioration by draining the country for hundreds of millions of dollars. Hyperinflation has been a major problem from about 2003 to April 2009, when the country suspended its own currency. The economy deteriorated from one of Africa's strongest economies to the world's worst.
The country has reserves of metallurgical-grade chromite. Other commercial mineral deposits include coal, asbestos, copper, nickel, gold, platinum and iron ore. Historically the country had farming and tourism as its other main industries.
Read more about Economy Of Zimbabwe: Current Economic Conditions, Poverty and Unemployment, The Government of National Unity
Famous quotes containing the words economy of and/or economy:
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)