Industry capacity utilisation falls to 53.2%

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector fell by 2.9 percent points to 53.2% in 2023 from 56.1% the previous year, primarily as a result of economic headwinds and highly regulated environment, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) report shows.

 

Presenting the 2023 CZI Manufacturing Sector Survey on Friday in the capital Harare, the country’s largest business lobby group’s chief economist, Dr Cornelius Dube, said manufacturers were battling forex shortages, crippling power crisis, exchange rate volatility and currency crisis, among many other headwinds.

“Capacity utilisation, which measures roughly how productive a factory is, is down to 53.2% in 2023 from 56.1% in 2022 and 56.3% in 2021,” Dr Dube said.

He said disclosed that manufacturers’ contribution to GDP fell to 9% in 2023 from 14.8% in 2018.

 

“In 2018, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP was 14.8%. It has since fallen to just 9% in 2023. This is about half of what manufacturing was contributing to GDP in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1980 and 1989, manufacturing contributed 23% to GDP on average,” he said.

 

According to the survey, 47% of manufacturers thought that the economy would improve between 2023 and 2024, while 30% thought that it would deteriorate.

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