Zimbabwe: Technical Assistance Report-National Accounts Mission
IMF Staff Country Reports, December 18, 2023
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Zimbabwe: Technical Assistance Report-National Accounts Mission
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Bibliographic details
- Published: December 18, 2023
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400263460.002
Mission scope and objectives
- Focus: National Accounts mission for Zimbabwe.
- Reviewed: recently produced estimates of annual gross domestic product (GDP) by the production approach (GDP(P)) for the year 2022.
- Reviewed: new quarterly estimates covering the period 2019 quarter 1 to 2023 quarter 2.
- Discussed: plans for the rebasing of GDP and the National Economic Census as a central component of the revised plan.
Main findings and data issues
- ZIMSTAT had made considerable progress in cleaning the value-added tax (VAT) turnover data.
- Most issues with the VAT turnover data had been resolved, but some data entry errors remained.
- These residual entry errors had been fixed in the annual data but were feeding through into the quarterly data, particularly in manufacturing.
- Further investigations will need to be carried out with Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to identify the cause.
- Some discontinuities in the labour market data used in some industries were investigated and resolved during the course of the mission.
- The March 2023 mission had described in detail the steps needed to rebase the accounts; as a result, ZIMSTAT needed to rework their plan, which had been overambitious. The new, concentrated plans on the National Economic Census were discussed with the mission.
Implications for national accounts and statistics
- Annual GDP(P) estimates for 2022 were reviewed with improvements stemming from VAT turnover data cleaning.
- Quarterly GDP estimates for 2019 quarter 1 to 2023 quarter 2 were reviewed; residual data-entry issues in quarterly series (notably manufacturing) require follow-up with administrative data providers.
- Rebasing remains a priority, with a revised, more focused plan emphasizing the National Economic Census.
Subject areas and keywords (as presented)
- Subject: Data collection, Deflation, Economic and financial statistics, International organization, Monetary policy, National accounts, Prices, Producer price indexes, Taxes, Value-added tax
- Keywords: annual GDP estimates, Data collection, Deflation, Gross domestic product (GDP), prices statistics ZIMSTAT, Producer price indexes, quarterly GDP estimates., rebasing, staff team of the International Monetary Fund, turnover data, value added tax (VAT), Value-added tax, VAT turnover data, Zimbabwe revenue authority, ZIMSTAT team
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