Beyond the Numbers: Examining the Political Economy and Socioeconomic Implications of Zimbabwe’s Public Debt Accumulation (2000–2025)

Abstract

Over the period from 2000 to 2025, Zimbabwe's public debt continues to be an indicator of highly macroeconomic imbalances and the highly unsustainable propensity to borrow. Most diagnostics of Zimbabwe's unsustainable borrowing focusing on the highly unsophisticated debt to GDP ratio while failing to look at the unsustainable institutions and the political economy of debt. This paper seeks to examine the Zimbabwe public debt profile, focusing on the structural and institutional attributions such as the legacy of sovereign debt, increasing debt servicing burden, and sovereign abuse of the Mutapa Investment Fund. Elite capture and institutional opacity regarding the bottom 90 accounts abuse of the transparency of inter public institutions grossly misappropriating public funds. The Zimbabwean economy continues to deteriorate, attracting a negative forecast because of the unrepudiated sovereign arrears and missed debt servicing, revealing the non-legitimate borrowing to achieve sovereign risk. The public debt constitutes a governance gap with a lack of accountability regarding opaque contracting, weak parliamentary supervision of debt, and abuse of public debt as ZIMCODD and civil society have insisted on the highly criticized off-budget borrowing. The prioritization of social spending cuts for certain social services during periods of austerity continues to deepen inequalities, especially for rural women, youth, and informal sector workers. Additionally, the prioritization of repayments perpetuates the stagnation of development in education, health, and inclusive economic growth, all of which are underfunded. This study advocates for governance of the over-used economic repayments to harness the potential of social accountability, transparency, and the public good. Consequently, the study advocates that Zimbabwe’s public debt management take on an equitable framework. This begins with the movement away from an over-reliance on technocratic frameworks for measuring debt sustainability. To effectively address the country’s systemic recurrent debt, the study highlights the urgent need for debt transparency, citizen oversight, and strengthening of public institutions.