World Bank upgrades Zim’s economic status

Ndaka Majaka

THE World Bank has upgraded Zimbabwe from low-income economy status to a lower-middle income economy.

This is contained in the WB’s latest report released on July 1, 2019.

The World Bank classifies economies into high, upper-middle, lower-middle and low income economies, based on income per capita.

The report reads, in part, “We base this assignment on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (current US$) calculated using the Atlas method. The classification is updated each year on July 1st.”

Zimbabwe’s GNI rose from $910 (July 1, 2018) to $1 790 (July 1, 2019), qualifying the country from a low-income tier to the lower-middle income level.

Gregory Smith, a former senior economist in the World Bank’s Global Practice for Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, said Zimbabwe needs to do more despite the “surprise” upgrade.

The GNI per capita used for this year’s classification is based on 2018 data.

The Comoros, Georgia, Kosovo, Senegal and Sri Lanka were also upgraded.

Argentina is the only country that slipped from high-income to upper-middle-income status.

• Analysis to follow…