The Limpopo River Basin constitutes a major economic hub for the SADC region. Almost all key economic activities such as agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing are, in one way or another, undertaken within the basin.

While it is difficult to aggregate the exact economic contribution of the basin to the entire economy of SADC or the four riparian states – Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, there is no doubt that the basin’s contribution is significant. SADC countries have a combined GDP of US$180 billion, which translates to a per capita income of US$933. However this masks wide disparities in the basin; Botswana and South Africa have a GDP per capita of more than US$3,000 while Mozambique and Zimbabwe each have less than 10 percent of that figure.

Macro-economic trends for most countries of the region have not been impressive since 1999. Budget deficits for many governments remain high, except Botswana where budget surpluses have been recorded in consecutive years. In Zimbabwe, inflation exceeded 100 percent in 2002. Mozambique and Botswana recently surpassed the UN New Agenda for Development in Africa’s targeted economic growth rate of 6 percent by registering growth rates of 10 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, in 2000.

The concentration of economic ventures along the basin can be explained by three key factors (a) availability of water (b) abundance of natural resources including minerals, forests, parks and wildlife, and (c) availability of suitable energy.

Country	Population (,000)	GDP Growth rates (%)	Inflation (%)	GDP/capita (US$)	Consumer price increase (%)
Botswana	1,247	4.2	7.2	3,117	7.2
Mozambique	16,841	9.0	6.2	242	6.2
South Africa	43,050	1.2	5.2	3,044	5.2
Zimbabwe	13,079	0.5	58.5	278	58.5