Dec 3 (Reuters) - Below are some details of how Zimbabwe is starting to slowly recover:
* INFLATION
Years of hyperinflation ended when Zimbabwe abandoned its dollar and allowed the use of foreign currencies.
The inflation rate in October was 0.8 percent month-on-month compared to -0.5 percent in September.
Inflation reached 231 million percent a year in July 2008 before the country stopped announcing figures.
The IMF estimated that inflation peaked at 500 billion percent in December 2008.
* GDP
The budget forecast is for growth of 4.7 percent in 2009, making it the first expansion in a decade. Finance Minister Tendai Biti estimated gross domestic product would grow by seven percent in 2010.
Until 2008, GDP has fallen every year since 2000. The IMF estimated that the economy shrank 14 percent in 2008 and 6.91 percent in 2007.
The IMF said per capita GDP fell from $519 in 2000 to $268 in 2008. In 1990, per capita GDP was around $900.
* INCOME
An estimated 83 percent of the population was living on below $2 a day by 2005. The situation only worsened in the next three years.
People are now able to buy basic commodities although incomes remain low, with an average government employee earning $150 a month. Biti classified 85 percent of the population as the "submerged and drowning poor".
* AGRICULTURE
Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe now needs to import maize. The U.N. agricultural production index for Zimbabwe fell from nearly 107 in 2000 to 73 in 2005.
But the new power-sharing government has projected maize output of up to 2.5 million tonnes next season, which would mark a return to food self sufficiency. About 7 million people -- over half the population -- relied on food aid last year.
Zimbabwe needs about 1.8 million tonnes of the staple maize per year, according to official figures.
* GOLD
Zimbabwe's gold output is expected to increase to 4.5 tonnes this year against 3.5 tonnes in 2008. At its peak in the past, the gold industry produced 2.4 tonnes of gold per month.
Gold output hit a low of 125 kg in October, 2008 as the economic crisis forced mines to close.
* UNEMPLOYMENT
Formal unemployment is estimated at over 90 percent. Well over 3 million Zimbabweans are thought to have fled, mostly to South Africa, in search of work and food.
* IMF ARREARS
The IMF allocated $510 million to Zimbabwe this year, part of the fund's global assistance package to help countries cope with the worldwide financial crisis.
The IMF allocation is the first major foreign aid Zimbabwe has received in a decade after Mugabe's ZANU-PF party fell out with Western donors over its policies such as seizing white owned farms to give to landless black Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe fell into arrears with the International Monetary Fund in 2001. By end-October this year, it owed $89.4 million, of which nearly $82 million has been in arrears for three years or more.
* HIV/AIDS
A bright spot even before recovery began was a decline in HIV prevalence. Among adults aged between 15 to 49, it fell to 13.7 percent in 2008, although it remains the fourth highest in the world. AIDS causes the death of about 3,200 people per week in the country.
HIV prevalence among pregnant women at clinics fell from 26 percent in 2002 to 18 in 2006, but some put that down to high mortality and emigration rather than prevention measures.
Sources: UBS, Reuters, WFP, World Bank, Unicef, UNDP, IMF, CIA World Factbook. (Compiled by Marius Bosch) ((marius.bosch@thomsonreuters.com; +27 11 775 3040; Reuters Messaging: marius.bosch.reuters.com@reuters.net)) (For more Africa cover visit: http://af.reuters.com -- To comment on this story email: SouthAfrica.Newsroom@reuters.com)