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government type:
parliamentary democracy capital: harare administrative divisions: 8 provinces and 2 cities* with provincial status; bulawayo*. harare*. manicaland. mashonaland central. mashonaland east. mashonaland west. masvingo. matabeleland north. matabeleland south. midlands independence: 18 april 1980 (from uk) national holiday: independence day. 18 april (1980) constitution: 21 december 1979 legal system: mixture of roman-dutch and english common law suffrage: 18 years of age; universal executive branch: chief of state: executive president robert gabriel mugabe (since 31 december 1987); vice president joyce mujuru (since 6 december 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government head of government: executive president robert gabriel mugabe (since 31 december 1987); vice president joyce mujuru (since 6 december 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government cabinet: cabinet appointed by the president; responsible to the house of assembly elections: presidential candidates nominated with a nomination paper signed by at least 10 registered voters (at least one from each province) and elected by popular vote for a 6-year term; election last held 9-11 march 2002 (next to be held march 2008); co-vice presidents appointed by the president election results: robert gabriel mugabe reelected president; percent of vote - robert gabriel mugabe 56.2%. morgan tsvangirai 41.9% legislative branch: unicameral house of assembly (150 seats - 120 elected by popular vote for five-year terms. 12 nominated by the president. 10 occupied by traditional chiefs chosen by their peers. and 8 occupied by provincial governors appointed by the president) elections: last held 31 march 2005 (next to be held na 2010) election results: percent of vote by party - zanu-pf 59.6%. mdc 39.5%. other 0.9%; seats by party - zanu-pf 78. mdc 41. independents 1 judicial branch: supreme court; high court political parties and leaders: movement for democratic change or mdc [morgan tsvangirai]; national alliance for good governance or nagg [shakespeare maya]; united parties [abel muzorewa]; zimbabwe african national union-ndonga or zanu-ndonga [wilson kumbula]; zimbabwe african national union-patriotic front or zanu-pf [robert gabriel mugabe]; zimbabwe african peoples union or zapu [agrippa madlela] political pressure groups and leaders: national constitutional assembly or nca [lovemore madhuku]; crisis in zimbabwe coalition [brian kagoro]; zimbabwe congress of trade unions or zctu [lovemore matombo] international organization participation: acp. afdb. au. comesa. fao. g-15. g-77. iaea. ibrd. icao. icct (signatory). icftu. icrm. ida. ifad. ifc. ifrcs. ilo. imf. imo. interpol. ioc. iom. iso. itu. miga. nam. opcw. pca. sadc. un. unctad. unesco. unido. unmis. upu. wcl. wco. wftu. who. wipo. wmo. wtoo. wto diplomatic representation in the us: chief of mission: ambassador simbi veke mubako chancery: 1608 new hampshire avenue nw. washington. dc 20009 telephone: [1] (202) 332-7100 fax: [1] (202) 483-9326 diplomatic representation from the us: chief of mission: ambassador joseph g. sullivan embassy: 172 herbert chitepo avenue. harare mailing address: p. o. box 3340. harare telephone: [263] (4) 250-593 and 250-594 fax: [263] (4) 796488 flag description: seven equal horizontal bands of green. yellow. red. black. red. yellow. and green with a white isosceles triangle edged in black with its base on the hoist side; a yellow zimbabwe bird representing the long history of the country is superimposed on a red five-pointed star in the center of the triangle. which symbolizes peace; green symbolizes agriculture. yellow - mineral wealth. red - blood shed to achieve independence. and black stands for the native people economy - overview: the government of zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit. an overvalued exchange rate. soaring inflation. and bare shelves. its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the democratic republic of the congo. for example. drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. badly needed support from the imf has been suspended because of the country's failure to meet budgetary goals. inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 133% at the end of 2004 and 246.7% in 2005. while the exchange rate fell from 24 zimbabwean dollars per us dollar to 15.200 in the same time period. the government's land reform program. characterized by chaos and violence. has badly damaged the commercial farming sector. the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400.000 jobs. gdp (purchasing power parity): $23.98 billion (2005 est.) gdp (official exchange rate): $5.817 billion (2005 est.) gdp - real growth rate: -4% (2005 est.) gdp - per capita: purchasing power parity - $1.900 (2005 est.) gdp - composition by sector: agriculture: 17.9% industry: 24.3% services: 57.9% (2005 est.) labor force: 3.94 million (2005 est.) labor force - by occupation: agriculture 66%. industry 10%. services 24% (1996) unemployment rate: 60% (2004 est.) population below poverty line: 80% (2004 est.) household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 1.97% highest 10%: 40.42% (1995) distribution of family income - gini index: 56.8 (2003) inflation rate (consumer prices): 246.7% (2005 est.) investment (gross fixed): 7.9% of gdp (2005 est.) budget: revenues: $1.409 billion expenditures: $1.905 billion. including capital expenditures of na (2005 est.) public debt: 30.1% of gdp (2005 est.) agriculture - products: corn. cotton. tobacco. wheat. coffee. sugarcane. peanuts; sheep. goats. pigs industries: mining (coal. gold. platinum. copper. nickel. tin. clay. numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores). steel. wood products. cement. chemicals. fertilizer. clothing and footwear. foodstuffs. beverages industrial production growth rate: -1.7% (2005 est.) electricity - production: 8.877 billion kwh (2003) electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 47% hydro: 53% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001) electricity - consumption: 11.22 billion kwh (2003) electricity - exports: 0 kwh (2003) electricity - imports: 3.3 billion kwh (2003) oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2003 est.) oil - consumption: 22.500 bbl/day (2003 est.) oil - exports: 0 bbl/day na (2004 est.) oil - imports: 23.000 bbl/day na (2004 est.) current account balance: $-517 million (2005 est.) exports: $1.644 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.) exports - partners: south africa 31.5%. switzerland 7.4%. uk 7.3%. china 6.1%. germany 4.3% (2004) imports: $2.059 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.) imports - partners: south africa 46.9%. botswana 3.6%. uk 3.4% (2004) reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $160 million (2005 est.) debt - external: $5.17 billion (2005 est.) economic aid - recipient: $178 million; note - the eu and the us provide food aid on humanitarian grounds (2000 est.) currency (code): zimbabwean dollar (zwd) currency code: zwd exchange rates: zimbabwean dollars per us dollar - 15.190.8 (2005). 4.303.28 (2004). 697.424 (2003). 55.036 (2002). 55.052 (2001) note: these are official exchange rates. non-official rates vary significantly fiscal year: calendar year telephones - main lines in use: 300.900 (2003) telephones - mobile cellular: 379.100 (2003) telephone system: general assessment: system was once one of the best in africa. but now suffers from poor maintenance; more than 100.000 outstanding requests for connection despite an equally large number of installed but unused main lines domestic: consists of microwave radio relay links. open-wire lines. radiotelephone communication stations. fixed wireless local loop installations. and a substantial mobile cellular network; internet connection is available in harare and planned for all major towns and for some of the smaller ones international: country code - 263; satellite earth stations - 2 intelsat; two international digital gateway exchanges (in harare and gweru) radio broadcast stations: am 7. fm 20 (plus 17 repeater stations). shortwave 1 (1998) radios: 1.14 million (1997) television broadcast stations: 16 (1997) televisions: 370.000 (1997) internet country code: .zw internet hosts: 4.501 (2003) internet service providers (isps): 6 (2000) internet users: 500.000 (2002) airports: 404 (2004 est.) airports - with paved runways: total: 17 over 3.047 m: 3 2.438 to 3.047 m: 2 1.524 to 2.437 m: 4 914 to 1.523 m: 8 (2005 est.) airports - with unpaved runways: total: 387 1.524 to 2.437 m: 5 914 to 1.523 m: 186 under 914 m: 196 (2005 est.) pipelines: refined products 261 km (2004) railways: total: 3.077 km narrow gauge: 3.077 km 1.067-m gauge (313 km electrified) (2004) roadways: total: 18.338 km paved: 8.692 km unpaved: 9.646 km (1999 est.) waterways: on lake kariba. length small (2003) ports and terminals: binga. kariba military branches: zimbabwe defense forces (zdf): zimbabwe national army. air force of zimbabwe (afz). zimbabwe republic police (2005) military service age and obligation: 18 years of age (est.) (2004) manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 2.840.053 (2005 est.) manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 1.148.590 (2005 est.) military expenditures - dollar figure: $217 million (2004) military expenditures - percent of gdp: 4.3% (2004) disputes - international: botswana has built electric fences and south africa has placed military along the border to stem the flow of thousands of zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape political persecution; namibia has supported and in 2004 zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between botswana and zambia to build a bridge over the zambezi river. thereby de facto recognizing a short. but not clearly delimited botswana-zambia boundary in the river refugees and internally displaced persons: idps: 100.000-150.000 (mugabe-led political violence. human rights violations. land reform. and economic collapse) (2004) illicit drugs: transit point for african cannabis and south asian heroin. mandrax. and methamphetamines destined for the south african and european markets
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