Zimbabwe is undergoing its most credible macroeconomic turnaround in three decades, combining GDP growth, collapsing inflation, record FDI, and a legally entrenched regime for capital repatriation.

For law firms, corporates, and investors in Asia, the Gulf, India, and Australia weighing exposure to Southern Africa, the country now presents a rare combination of resource-driven growth and improving institutional discipline, underpinned by a statutory framework that expressly guarantees investors the right to move capital, profits and dividends offshore.

Macroeconomic momentum

Zimbabwe’s economy grew 7.5% in 2025, comfortably outperforming the government’s own 6.6% target and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Sub-Saharan African regional average of 4.5%.

The IMF projects growth of around 5% in 2026, driven by continued strength in agriculture and mining, while the Zimbabwean Treasury has floated an even more bullish scenario of 8.5%-10% growth following a new IMF staff-monitored program.

This growth trajectory is not a one-off spike. Zimbabwe has beaten its own growth targets for consecutive years, a pattern that reflects structural tailwinds in gold, platinum, lithium, and agriculture rather than a temporary commodity windfall.

Foreign currency reserves backing the local currency rose from US$276 million in April 2024 to US$1.2 billion by end-2025, providing more than a month of import cover and materially reducing balance-of-payments risk for investors repatriating funds.

Read the full report on The GRM Group's Substack here.

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Nabii Intel is Africa’s leading independent legal market intelligence and M&A research firm, helping law firms make smarter growth decisions.

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