ZIMBABWE has settled down in the Second Republic to annual economic growth rates of over 6 percent, with only emergencies such as Covid-19 and the very bad drought of last year lowering this figure.
But even the worst drought in several decades still saw growth in the economy, of 2 percent and there are years in our history when that would have been a very welcome percentage, and we have important neighbours who would not sneer at 2 percent.
In the face of a natural disaster, this is an important milestone and switches the whole way we look at growth.
It might be fast: It might be slow, but whatever happens there is still growth.
Government has taken decisive steps to boost productivity on smallholder farms.
There have been several partnerships between the Government and active members of the private sectors, and a lot of general support from a pro-business and pro-investment Government unleashing the private sector so business people can get on with using their talents to create and grow their businesses and add to the totals.
But just as important was the Government decision to widen the economy as well as deepen it, to have many more sectors contributing and having a far fuller range of investment and business. This means that when something goes down in one sector, such as summer crop farming in a bad drought or base metal prices in mining or major declines in tourism in a pandemic, the roof does not fall in.
Regardless of how bad business can be in some sectors, the general totals and averages will be positive. This richer and more diversified economy also means that a swathe of sectors that might have been hit along with most of the customers in some downturn in the past, will still be moving forward since they now have a far wider customer base.
So banks are no longer tied to specific sectors but have clients throughout the business world. Transporters can also find someone who wants their goods moved, even if they are a different group to the main customer of last year. A supermarket is far less tied to supplying customers working in factories or offices, if there are lots of other people making money.
The richness of the widening economy is also part of the core Government programmes to ensure that wealth is spread, and not just concentrated in a few hands.
Of course we need to support the handicapped, the infirm, the aged and the special needs of many children, but generally a lot can be done by ensuring that ordinary families can carry a lot of this load because they have been given opportunities that they are using.
Even when we look at Government policies for elderly people, for example, we are looking at how they can earn some sort of living commensurate with their skills, health and talents, rather than just collecting a pension, helpful as that might be and not to be rejected. A lot of Government programmes are to make sure that those who can, do get ahead under their own steam with support.
This spreading of wealth can be particularly seen in much of agriculture and in gold mining. Government farmer programmes see direct support for smallholders, to turn them into small business people and start earning streams of income from a growing range of activity, often each being started by one of those Presidential programmes.
That in turn will see rural communities building up groups of other businesses. More solar power, more mechanisation, means more work for the skilled people who can maintain these, and more products from farms means more opportunities for on-farm and community processing, so building up wealth.
A majority of our gold now comes from small-scale artisanal miners, something the geology of gold bearing rock in Zimbabwe with lots of very small deposits encourages. Colonial times saw this blocked, but crafting programmes for artisanal miners has opened legal doors.
So successful have been the programmes for small-scale miners and farmers, that a lot of the Government desire to regularise and formalise the informal industrial and retail sections of the economy make sense. We now know that having everyone on a list means we can tailor programmes to speed up development instead of just using blind market forces often run by some very dubious people.
The Government still believes in market forces for fixing a lot of economic problems, but has discovered that knowing what is going on means abuse and crime can be stopped while the honest hard worker can be given far more support.
