Zimbabwe: The tale of an economy plagued by a chronic trade deficit

The story behind the iconic Meikles Hotel and its founder Thomas Meikle

Old Meikles Hotel Buidling 1924: Credit - Meikles Hotel Twitter Feed The 15 th of November marks the 102 nd anniversary of Meikles hotel, a hotel founded by Thomas Meikle, following on a vision he shared with his brother Stewart, of establishing a hotel on the influential site overlooking Cecil Square (now called Africa Unity Square, in the heart of then Rhodesia`s capital city, Salisbury. Meikles hotel was officially opened on November 15, 1915, on the site which now houses ZB Life Towers, along Jason Moyo avenue in Harare and currently has a capacity of over 535 bedrooms. Meikles hotel holds the honour of being the first Zimbabwean hotel to attain the coveted 5-star rating, a feat it achieved in August 1983. Hotel grading was introduced in Zimbabwe in 1968, and the first results were announced in 1969. At the time, no local hotels received 4-stars, however the Ambassador Hotel, Jameson Hotel and Park Lane Hotel (now the GMB Headquarters) received 3 stars each. Interes...

Black Friday 1997: How the Zimbabwe dollar crashed and tipped the economy over the brink

14 November 1997 – dubbed “Black Friday”- is a day that will forever be etched in Zimbabwe`s economic history as the cataclysmic point that triggered Zimbabwe`s economic free-fall. Below is a brief chronicle of the events leading up to this seminal day, and what ensued in the aftermaths of Black Friday. In the second decade of its independence, the Zimbabwean government launched an economic reform programme essential in liberalizing the economy and dealing with the structural impediments to growth. However, fiscal policy was weak and monetary policy unsteady during the time period; and the country suffered from two serious droughts (in 1992 and 1995), which affected Zimbabwe’s agriculture, its primary economic industry. A land reform had been a highly contentious issue since independence, as the majority of prime agricultural land was owned by about 4,000 white commercial farmers; while the indigenous population continued to engage in subsistence farming. In the first five y...

Securitising Zimbabwe`s Minerals: A Case Study

Abstract Following the dollarization of the Zimbabwean economy in 2009, the country has seen its economic fundamentals improve. Inflation has been reigned in, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has been on an upward trajectory. However, Zimbabwe`s total external debt overhang continues to stifle the recovery of the country`s economy, as investors are not willing to lend to the country, and this has had adverse effects on the country`s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows. Zimbabwe`s external debt overhang is currently estimated at around US$10.7 billion, which is a gigantic, 111% of the country`s GDP. IMF Report, (2012) To circumvent the problem of external debt, which continues to be a major impediment to the economic recovery of the country, various scholars have put forward several solutions which include, declaring Zimbabwe as a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), and securitisation of the country`s mineral resources. This study looks at securitisation of...

Carte Blanche with Perry

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