Online Reporter
We make our first steps into 2026 today, after a highly successful 2025.
Last year was, indeed, challenging, as normal life always is, but fulfilment comes when we face the challenges head-on and overcome them.
We did that as a country last year, recording multiple successes in the social, economic and political spheres.
Political stability prevailed across the country, and all of us went about our business unhindered. We remained a socially stable and peaceful society last year, too, as we have been over the past four or so decades.
Amid political and social stability, the Government and its development partners, as well as the business sector and ordinary people, worked hard to develop ourselves economically.
Multiple achievements were recorded in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism and other industries last year.
We realised one of our biggest agricultural harvests in years. Tobacco boomed to a record 353mn kg from 300mn kg in 2024.
Maize, wheat and fruits did well too.
Mining, led by the gold and platinum group metals (PGMs) subsectors, performed extremely well. The country produced 41.8 tonnes of gold in the first 10 months of the year, exceeding its 40-tonne annual output target.
Authorities projected annual inflation would end 2025 at around 20 percent from a July peak of 95,8 percent. They forecasted that the economy would grow by 6,6% from 3,5% in 2024. The national gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to climb to $55bn by the end of last month from $45,7bn in 2024.
Therefore, 2025 was a successful year for us as a nation, and we look forward with hope for greater success this year.
This rainy season is doing well, with plantings across major crops expanding on previous seasons. We hope that the country will receive normal to above-normal rainfall as projected in August, so that the growth in plantings will result in yet another bumper harvest this year.
The mining industry should maintain its positive trajectory this year. Companies are investing huge sums of money in new mines and the expansion of existing ones. We foresee the gold price rally persisting this year, with PGMs and lithium prices continuing on their recovery paths.
As we noted earlier, gold output was already at about 41,8 tonnes by October; thus, we expect the final annual production to be around 44 tonnes. That will put the sector on track to achieve the 50-tonne production guidance for this year.
The Manhize Iron and Steel Project is now meeting local steel demand. It started exporting in May last year, with clear indications that ongoing investment in plant expansion will continue this year.
If gold, PGMs, lithium and iron perform as projected, that will have a tremendous impact on the mining industry and the economy as a whole.
The manufacturing industry, which accounts for more than 15 percent of the GDP, is the driver of our economy. Like in mining and agriculture, millions are being invested in new factories, while existing ones are being modernised and expanded.
Recoveries in the primary sectors of mining and agriculture, coupled with the Government’s policy of expanding domestic value addition of local resources, will be the tailwind that the manufacturing industry needs to consolidate its dominance.
Tourism continued on its post-pandemic recovery. Arrivals rose in 2025, as Forbes, one of the globe’s most influential tourism and travel publications, crownied Zimbabwe as the best country to visit last year.
Local political conditions are great, while the economic climate is supportive, so we don’t foresee anything reversing the gains that the tourism sector recorded last year.
