Income, Consumption and Expenditure Survey 2017-2019

The objective of the Mini-PICES 2019 survey was to update the 2017 poverty indicators to assess the impact of the economic difficulties on the welfare and living conditions of urban and rural Zimbabweans. The key findings from the Mini-PICES show that extreme poverty rose substantially between 2017 and April–May 2019, with urban areas affected most in relative terms. It was observed that half of all extremely poor people were covered by at least one social assistance program. In 2018, ZIMSTAT, with technical assistance from the World Bank, completed a rebasing of the poverty measurement in Zimbabwe. In comparison to earlier surveys, the PICES 2017 collected more detailed information on household assets and captured details on food consumption from own production, making it possible to refine the poverty measurement. This rebasing essentially implied starting a new series of poverty measurements from 2017. The analysis presented in this report uses this methodology to compare poverty indicators in 2017 with those in April–May 2019.