A leader of the Zimbabwean business community expressed expectations that businesses in his country will benefit from China's sustained economic growth and learn from its development model.
In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Tapiwa Karoro, president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest grouping of businesses, said he has been impressed to see the consistent growth of the Chinese GDP over the past decade.
"That has seen them on a very exciting trajectory in terms of the economy. It's already number two, the second-largest economy in the world. What else have we seen out of China? I think rapid urbanization, the development of megacities. They undertook arguably one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, the Belt and Road Initiative, and that's all obviously then seen them almost directly investing over 60 countries in one infrastructure project," Karoro said.
He noted that there are many aspects of the Chinese development model the Zimbabwe could learn from, specifically from a private sector perspective.
"Certainly I don't think that the growth that China has seen would happen if you had government on one end pushing policy in one direction and the private sector on the other end pushing in another direction. So I think if there's one lesson that we can learn, politics aside, is do we have all stakeholders moving in a clear, unified direction. Are we all clear as Zimbabweans about the agenda that we want to push? And I think that’s what China has been able to do," he said.
Karoro also advocated for increased value addition within Africa and the promotion of value-added African products in the Chinese market to foster more sustainable and robust trade relationships going forward.
"I would at least like to see the African-China trade relations you know being diversified from not just your commodities or raw commodities. I think we would like to see a lot more value addition being done in Africa. I think would like to see more of value-added products from Africa finding markets in China and I think the more robust the trade becomes the more sustainable the relationship will be going forward," the chamber president said.
Zimbabwean businesses hope to benefit from China’s economic growth
The Trump administration's decision to impose "reciprocal tariffs" on all trade partners has sparked panic among investors, sending all three major U.S. stock indices into sharp declines on Thursday, with European stock markets also seeing significant losses, while the U.S. Dollar Index dropped substantially.
As of the close on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,679.39 points to 40,545.93, down 3.98 percent, marking its largest single-day decline since June 2020.
The S and P 500 lost 274.45 points to settle at 5,396.52 points, a 4.84 percent decrease, its biggest drop since June 2020. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1,050.44 points to 16,550.61 points, down 5.97 percent, marking its largest single-day fall since March 2020.
The sell-off was widespread, with key individual stocks also taking a hit. Nike saw a steep 14 percent drop in its share price, while Apple fell by 9 percent. Bank stocks were under heavy pressure, with Western Alliance Bank dropping nearly 16 percent, Citigroup losing about 12 percent, and Bank of America slipping 11 percent.
In the small-cap segment, the Russell 2000 Index saw a notable decline of more than 6 percent. Compared to its peak in November of last year, the index has now dropped over 20 percent, entering a technical bear market.
This marks a stark contrast to the surge seen after the U.S. presidential election, when small-cap stocks were seen as beneficiaries of deregulation, tax cuts, and tariffs.
UBS analysts warned of the potential long-term economic consequences of the tariffs, suggesting that if they persist, inflation could rise sharply, severely impacting the macroeconomy, and potentially leading to significant deterioration in both U.S. and global economic growth and inflation over the next year.
The firm's U.S. economic team estimates that real GDP could decline by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in 2025, with inflation possibly reaching 5 percent.
Meanwhile, European markets followed suit, with all three major stock indices experiencing losses. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed at 8,474.74 points, down 133.74 points, or 1.55 percent, from the previous trading day. The French CAC40 dropped by 259.85 points to 7,598.98 points, a 3.31 percent decrease. In Germany, the DAX Index closed at 21,717.39 points, down 673.45 points, a 3.01 percent drop.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six key currencies, including the euro and the British pound, dropped 1.67 percent to 102.073, while the euro and pound both strengthened as investors sought safer assets amid rising market volatility.
US tariff moves trigger market panic, major indices suffer sharp losses
