HARARE – Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector has increased five-fold since the formation of a unity government in 2009 but lack of capital and low demand for goods are undermining the industry, the main industrial body has said.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) said capacity utilisation rose to 57,2 per cent by the end of the first half of 2011 from 43,7 per cent in the same period last year. ‘Notwithstanding the increase in capacity utilisation, the sector is still constrained by several factors which include low product demand, lack of working capital and machine breakdown,’ the CZI said.It said the cost of production also remained high, making locally manufactured goods less competitive than imports from countries such as South Africa, whose products have flooded the Zimbabwean market. The sector’s contribution to gross domestic product has shrunk to 13 per cent from 22 per cent in 2000, before the advent of an economic crisis triggered by President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned commercial farms to resettle landless blacks. – Nampa-Reuters
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