Zimbabwe’s Infrastructure : A Continental Perspective
Despite general economic decline and power-supply deficiencies, infrastructure made a modest net contribution of just less than half a percentage point to Zimbabwe's improved per capita growth performance in recent years. Raising the country&#...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20111006092919 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3601 |
| Summary: | Despite general economic decline and
power-supply deficiencies, infrastructure made a modest net
contribution of just less than half a percentage point to
Zimbabwe's improved per capita growth performance in
recent years. Raising the country's infrastructure
endowment to that of the region's middle-income
countries could boost annual growth by about 2.4 percentage
points. Zimbabwe made significant progress in infrastructure
in its early period as an independent state, building a
national electricity network with regional interconnections,
an extensive and internationally connected road network, and
a water and sewer system. But the country has been unable to
maintain its existing infrastructure since it became
immersed in economic and political turmoil in the late
1990s. Zimbabwe now faces a number of important
infrastructure challenges, the most pressing of which lie in
the power and water sectors, where deteriorating conditions
pose risks to the economy and public health. Zimbabwe
currently spends about $0.8 billion per year on
infrastructure, though $0.7 billion of this is lost to
inefficiencies of various kinds. Even if these
inefficiencies were fully captured, Zimbabwe would still
face an infrastructure funding gap of $0.6 billion per year.
That staggering figure can be reduced, however, to $0.4
billion if the country adopts a more modest spending
scenario, or even to $0.1 billion under a minimalist,
maintenance-only scenario. To close the gap, Zimbabwe needs
to raise additional public, private-sector, and
international funding, which, when coupled with the prospect
of economic rebound and prudent policies, would allow the
country to regain its historic infrastructure advantages. |
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