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Despite the inescapable picture of hardships and circumstances in Zimbabwe, there has not been dedicated research focused on understanding the management of household finances, particularly to assess financial distress and how it varies among Zimbabweans. This study aims to use survey data to measure financial distress and ascertain the socioeconomic, demographic and behavioural factors associated with it among Zimbabweans.

A sample of 1,006 survey respondents from five provinces of Zimbabwe was used. The principal component analysis approach was used to create a composite financial distress score. The t-test for the equality of means and analysis of variance were used to test for the difference in financial distress between groups, whilst the ordinary least squares regression was used to determine the factors associated with financial distress after controlling for other factors.

The study found that consumer financial distress was mainly explained by locality (urban/rural and province), frequency and level of income (informality) and age. Having saved in the past 12 months did not significantly differentiate savers from non-savers on financial distress. The study also found that gender, level of education, marital status, role in household financial decision-making and role in household provisioning were not significant predictors of financial distress.

The findings have policy implications, especially for the government of Zimbabwe, its agencies and local authorities. Enacting policies that create opportunities for inclusive and sustainable livelihoods and economic growth should be the priority. In addition, instituting favourable policies that allow informal business to grow, formalise and integrate with the formal economy may help to sustainably grow the economy and alleviate the financial hardships among consumers. For consumers, adopting financial behaviours that ensure that they live within their means cannot be over emphasised.

This is the first paper to profile the socioeconomic, demographic and behavioural factors associated with financial distress during the economic downturn among the impoverished Zimbabweans.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0640.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a mapping of financial distress among consumers in Zimbabwe. To inform policy, it nuances the understanding of the level of financial distress and the precise location of the most distressed consumers in the country.

The study mapped financial distress among consumers on the ten provinces of Zimbabwe using credit repayment behavioural indicators from retail consumer loans data.

Findings showed widespread financial distress among consumers across the country with Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces being the most affected, whilst Harare and Manicaland were better off. The study underscores the urgent need for an overhaul of the Zimbabwe’s haemorrhaging economy in order to restore dignity among consumers and relieve them of financial hardships.

The paper provides vital input for policy. Policy measures aimed at invigorating sustained economic growth, troubleshooting and revamping productivity, enhancing external competitiveness and creating employment across the country are desperately needed. Also, there is need for a functional consumer education and counselling entity to roll-out financial literacy programmes and counselling financially distressed obligors across this economically beleaguered country.

As an alternative poverty analysis approach, the purpose of this paper is to map the patterns of multiple deprivation in all 13 administrative regions of Namibia using the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey data.

Unsupervised statistical learning methods including the principal component analysis, k-means clustering and bivariate analysis were applied.

The results show that the multiple deprivation approach is a useful alternative in characterising poverty dynamics in the country. Specifically, the mapping shows that other dimensions of poverty such as access to utilities and services among other things are equally useful welfare indicators as they scored higher than income and consumption on discriminant ability.

Unpacking the multi-dimensionality aspect of poverty has drawn significant attention from development economists and continues to play a major role in policy formulation for developing countries. The study recommends buttressing of conventional income poverty measures with multiple deprivation approaches for a comprehensive picture on poverty issues.