This paper investigates the impact of dollarization policy on Zimbabwe exports over a period of 20 years. The study used panel data for 50 Zimbabwe potential historical trading partners. Random effects model (REM) was applied to estimate the gravity model equation. Panel feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regression technique corrected for heteroskedasticity and contemporaneous correlation across panels was applied to probe factors that drive Zimbabwe export flows. The results provide insights on the impact of dollarization policy, GDP, bilateral exchange rate, SADC membership status and population on Zimbabwe exports. If monetary authorities involuntarily re-dollarize the economy owing to monetary autonomy erosion, emphasis should be directed towards internal devaluation which could be attained by measures intended to exert downward pressure on domestic costs, wages and prices to recuperate export competitiveness. Further, government has to create an environment that encourage foreign direct investment inflows to ease liquidity challenges probable to be experienced under dollarization regime. Nevertheless, macroeconomic fundamentals ought to be addressed with action to spur economic growth. Sufficient resources should be channelled towards increasing the country's productive capacity, and this can enhance country's ability to supply export products to the international market, and curb import growth.

This paper investigates the link between real exchange rate misalignment and Southern African countries' economic growth. The study used panel data for 16 Southern African countries over 17 years. Generalized methods of moments (GMM) was applied to analyze the panel growth equation. The estimated results have suggested that the real exchange rate, real exchange rate misalignment, terms of trade, and foreign direct investment explains variation in income growth of southern African countries. The real exchange rate appreciation over the study period has adversely affected growth, whereas real exchange rate undervaluation suggests a positive impact on annual income growth. Unfavourable terms of trade were found to hurt growth, whereas foreign direct investment upsurge stimulates growth. Thus, policymakers in their respective African countries ought to diligently monitor real exchange rate misalignment in the foreign exchange market. An increase in real exchange rate overvaluation may adversely affect the trade and current account balances, which might ultimately hurt growth.

The focus of this study was on investigating the response of tobacco exports to real exchange rates and real exchange rate volatility and other factors in Zimbabwe using secondary data spanning from 1980 to 2019. Bilateral nominal exchange rates and time-variant weights of Zimbabwe’s 10 major trading partners were calculated and used to compute the real exchange rate index. The time-dependent weighting system was used to better represent the evolution of trade patterns in the index. The arithmetic method was employed for computing the index. Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH) models were used to generate the real exchange rate volatility index. The export response function was adopted as the tobacco exports response model. The variables in the tobacco exports response model were the realworld Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real exchange rate, terms of trade, real exchange rate volatility and dollarization. A vector error correction model (VECM) was used to estimate the response of tobacco exports to real exchange rate, real exchange rate volatility and other factors. The VECM results indicated that real world GDP was insignificant in both the short and long run. In the long run, the real exchange rate appreciation had a negative impact on tobacco exports. Conversely, in the short run, the depreciation of real exchange rate had a positive impact on tobacco exports. Hence, the government has to adopt other mechanisms that reduce uncertain movements of exchange rates.