Economy · Current account balance · Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s current account balance rose to 1.2% of GDP in 2024.
1.2% of GDP
2024
Up 0.83 pp from 2023.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
1.2% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance nets what Zimbabwe earns from the rest of the world against what it pays out. It covers trade in goods and services, income from abroad and transfers such as money sent home by relatives working overseas. The total is divided by GDP so that years of different economic size can be compared. Capital and financial flows, including loans and investment, sit in a separate account and do not enter the figure.
Higher is better. A higher balance is better because a surplus means the country takes in more foreign currency than it spends, so it has less need to borrow abroad or run down its reserves. The latest figure, for 2024, is 1.2% of GDP, up from 0.37% of GDP a year earlier, a gain of 0.83 percentage points. Since 2015 the balance has ranged from a low of −8% of GDP in 2015 to a high of 2.8% of GDP in 2019. The 2024 reading therefore sits in the upper part of that range, though still below the 2019 peak.
Why it matters. A surplus means Zimbabwe's earnings from exports, services and remittances covered its payments abroad in 2024. That gives importers of fuel, machinery and consumer goods a steadier supply of foreign currency, and it reduces the pressure on the state to seek external financing. The 2019 level of 2.8% of GDP is the nearest benchmark for how much further the balance has to climb.
| Period | Current account balance · Zimbabwe |
|---|---|
| 2015 | −8% of GDP |
| 2016 | −3.4% of GDP |
| 2017 | −0.53% of GDP |
| 2018 | −4% of GDP |
| 2019 | 2.8% of GDP |
| 2020 | 2.1% of GDP |
| 2021 | 0.84% of GDP |
| 2022 | 0.75% of GDP |
| 2023 | 0.37% of GDP |
| 2024 | 1.2% of GDP |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Current account balance, Zimbabwe, 2024; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/zimbabwe
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Methodology
Current account balance as a share of GDP. Unit: % of GDP. A negative value is a deficit.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.