THE country’s trade deficit for November last year grew by 107.2 percent to US$146 million according to external trade statistics released by the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (ZimStat) at the weekend.
The total value of exported goods in November 2023 was US$681.4 million, representing an 18.1 percent decrease from US$831.9 million reported the previous month, while imports for November 2023 amounted to US$827.3 million, a decrease of 8.3 percent from the US$902.3 million recorded last October resulting in the trade deficit of US$146 million, a 107.2 percent rise on the October figure of US$70.5 million.
The report indicated that industrial goods comprised 93.2 percent of exports with consumer goods contributing 2.8 percent, food and beverages 1.9 percent, fuels and lubricants 1.4 percent, capital goods 0.5 percent and transport and equipment 0.2 percent.
Save for transport and equipment which decreased from 23.9 percent in October to 9.1 percent in November, most imports significantly increased in November with industrial goods going up to 33.3 percent from 28.6 percent followed by fuels and lubricants which increased from 16 percent to 19.4 percent.
Capital goods increased to 16.6 percent from 15.7 percent, food beverages to 12.2 from 8.4 percent, capital goods went up from 6.4 percent to 8.3 percent, while unspecified goods stood at 1.1 percent from 1.0 percent the previous month.
Among the top 10 products exported in November were tobacco (31.1 percent), semi manufactured gold (17.1 percent), and other mineral substances (15.6 percent) while mineral fuels and oil products (20.4 percent), machinery and mechanical appliances (10.5 percent), vehicles (17.9 percent) and cereals (7.3 percent) were among the top 10 products imported into the country during the same month the report said.
The country’s major export destinations during the month were China (32.3 percent), South Africa (22.5 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (19.6 percent) with the three countries accounting for around 75 percent of the total export value of USD681.4 million. —New Ziana