Zimbabwe Lifts 2025 Growth Forecast on Tobacco Harvest, Gold Price Rally

Zimbabwe Lifts 2025 Growth Forecast on Tobacco Harvest, Gold Price Rally
Zimbabwe now sees its economy growing 6.6 percent this year, higher than an earlier projection of 6 percent due to a bigger tobacco harvest and this year’s rally in the global gold price, the finance minister said on Friday.

Last year, the country’s commodity-dependent economy recorded growth of 2 percent as an El Niño-induced drought hit crop yields and hydropower, forcing it to import grain.

Agriculture has since recovered, with tobacco and maize output improving, while the gold price rally has boosted mining revenues.

“The higher projection is on account of more than anticipated output in the agricultural sector, particularly tobacco… and mining sector growth buoyed by high commodity prices, notably gold,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told an economic conference in Bulawayo. Reuters