"In Zimbabwe, trade has been a driver of economic growth, rising incomes, and progressive empowerment of Zimbabweans through rising standards of living and the promise of better jobs. Since 1980, through good years and bad years, increases in exports have been positively associated with increases in national income. Zimbabwe's location and resource base, together with a low-cost but relatively well educated labor force, have endowed it with a naturally high trade ratio built on a diversified base that facilitates using trade as an engine of growth. While trade volumes have rebounded smartly from the deep recession of 2007-2008, these do not offset other worrisome longer-term trends:
• Export growth during the last decade has been lacklustre and failed to drive high growth.
• Agricultural exports, other than tobacco, have lost their once dominant role in the region, and are no longer a source of diversification.
• Manufacturing has withered in a continuing secular decline.
• Zi
