Staff Reporter

The country’s poverty rate has sharply declined with a survey conducted by ZIMSTAT last year showing that the poverty rate was now at 39 percent from.

A six round rapid Poverty, Income, Consumption and Expenditure (PICES) survey carried out by ZIMSTAT from 12 September to 23 October 2021 showed that the country’s food insecurity levels has fallen from 72 percent to 39 percent.

In a statement yesterday, ZIMSTAT Director General Taguma Mahonde revealed that extreme poverty rate in the country has also fallen to 43 percent from 49 percent.

 “Ladies and Gentlemen, the following are the highlights of round six rapid PICES findings: There was marked decline in food poverty in round six as households consumed own output maize, cooking oil and chicken especially in rural areas. Food insecurity fell from 72 percent in 2020 to 39 percent in 2021.Extreme Poverty rate declined from 49 percent in September 2020 to 43 percent in September 2021,”said Mahonde.

Mahonde said that ZIMSTAT conducted a successful collection of data from 1 774 households in the first round, 1 664 in the second round and 1 351 households in round six. He further said that ZIMSTAT was currently analyzing seventh round data whilst preparing to start the eighth round survey.

According to Mahonde, the objective of the Rapid PICES survey was to assess the social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and inform mitigation measures. He added that ZIMSTAT was working together with the World Bank, UNICEF, and ZIMREF in carrying out this exercise.

Meanwhile, ZIMSTAT was mandated to release micro data on the ZIMSTAT website and this was in line with the amended section 17 of the Census and Statistics Act of 2007.