This study examined the causal relationships between inflation, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), domestic savings, and investment in Zimbabwe using Toda-Yamamoto causality tests and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach with secondary data spanning from 1990-2022. The Granger causality analysis revealed a bidirectional causal effect between inflation and GDP, indicating that inflation significantly impacts the country's economic growth. Additionally, the analysis showed a unidirectional causal relationship from inflation to domestic savings, suggesting that high and persistent inflation can erode the value of existing savings and discourage individuals from saving. Furthermore, the study found a distinct causal flow from savings to investment, without feedback in the opposite direction, highlighting the crucial role of a robust savings culture in providing the necessary foundation for sustained investment and economic growth. The ARDL approach provided further insights into the dynamic relationships between these variables. In the short run, lagged GDP and current and lagged savings positively influenced GDP, while the second lag of savings had a negative impact, supporting the Carroll-Weil hypothesis that savings typically follow, rather than precede, economic growth in the short run. The analysis also found a positive short-run and long-run relationship between investment and GDP, supporting the view that investment is an important factor of economic growth. The study recommends that the policy makers can leverage the synergies between savings, investment, and inflation management to foster sustained economic growth and development in line with the government development policies. Developing policies to attract savings and reduce the cost of savings, as well as promoting long-term savings over transactional savings, can increase the country's overall savings base.

Ensuring household food security should be a priority goal of state policy. The level of ensuring household food security reflects the state of the country's economic development and the effectiveness of agricultural policy. Household food security is achieved by ensuring a high level of purchasing power of households, which is possible by increasing income. Savings are the “safety cushion” for households during the financial and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The level of household savings is important both for the households themselves and for the country's economy, since savings, on the one hand, help to avoid hunger during crises, and, on the other hand, are an important investment resource for the country's economy. That is why assessing the level of household savings and identifying factors affecting savings are important aspects of building an effective government policy in the field of food security.