Zimbabwe has potential to become fastest growing economy in Africa says Harvard professor

Zimbabwe has the potential to become the fastest growing economy in Africa over the next seven years according to Harvard University professor Ricardo Hausmann.

And this will not simply be because of its natural resources, especially the diamonds that are being discovered all over the country.

Growth, Hausmann says in his 362-page reported entitled: The atlas of economic complexity-mapping paths to prosperity, is “driven by knowledge at the level of society, not the individual”.

According to the report, Zimbabwe has the potential to become the world’s sixth fastest growing economy in the world in the seven years to 2020 behind the world’s economic giant, China, followed by India, Thailand, Belarus and Moldova.

The highest placed African country after Zimbabwe is Tunisia at 47. Followed by South Africa at 55, Egypt at 63, Namibia at 72, Kenya at 73, Senegal at 74 and Mauritius at 77.

The study was restricted to 128 countries, but they account for 99 percent of world trade, 97 percent of the world’s total gross domestic product and 95 percent of the world’s population.

Zimbabwe is, however, fourth in terms of growth domestic growth behind the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

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