Zimbabwe registered a 9% increase in the value of total exports in May 2021 from the total export earnings in April 2021.
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) attributed the growth to tobacco export earnings as the tobacco selling season started in April 2021. Zimstat said:
The value of total exports in May 2021 was US$486.8 million, signifying a marked increase of 9.5% from total export earnings in April 2021, at US$444.7 million.
The increase in total export earnings in May 2021 was attributed to tobacco export earnings as the tobacco selling season started in April 2021.
During the same period, imports increased slightly by 2.6% to US$503.1 million from US$490.1 million in April 2021.
Consequently, this resulted in a reduced trade deficit of US$16.2 million in May 2021, compared to US$45.5 million in April 2021.
Zimbabwe’s main exports during May 2021 were nickel mattes, ores and concentrates (38.6%), semi-manufactured gold (16.1%) and these minerals constituted a total of (54.7%) in total export earnings.
As the 2020-2021 tobacco selling season commenced, tobacco exports shot up to 21.8 % in May 2021 from 9.1 % in April 2021.
Main imports in May 2021 were machinery (15.5%), fuels (12.6%), cereals (5.7%) and pharmaceuticals (3.7%).
In 2021, maize excluding seed imports declined from a peak of 7.1% in February to 3.0% in April and 1.9% in May.