Foreign capital and the prospects for Zimbabwe

Very little is known about the development or the structure of foreign ownership of the Rhodesian economy, because of the general inadequacy of statistics resulting from participation in federation in the 1950s and UDI. This paper is an attempt to put the story together, by a series of estimates, a rather heavy reliance on statistics published in 1964/1965, and an assessment of scattered information appearing more recently. It is concluded that although Rhodesian private capital is relatively much weaker than its South African equivalent, it is dominant in some important sectors. Some possible consequences of this for Zimbabwean prospects are considered.