Fuel retailers in Zimbabwe have hiked prices by up to 50% as the Southern African country faced fresh shortages amid rampant inflation and a devalued currency, a state-run daily reported on Tuesday.
”Diesel and petrol prices went up at the weekend from about Z$400 000 ($1,60) per litre to between Z$600 000 and Z$650 000,” the Herald newspaper said.
The scarcity also pushed the black market price to Z$1-million per litre.
The price hike came just over a month after fuel stations increased prices by over 100% and triggered a spate of bus-fare increases, hitting hard millions of long-suffering workers reeling from a record inflation rate of just less than 1 200%.
”The fuel shortage and its ripple effects have been attributed to the fall of the Zimbabwe dollar against major currencies and the squeeze on illegal foreign currency dealers who were financing some of the fuel imports,” the newspaper said, adding that most fuel stations in Harare had no fuel on Monday.
Zimbabwe’s reserve bank last week devalued the local currency to 250 000 against the greenback and introduced sweeping currency reforms, which the bank’s chief said were aimed at snuffing out a flourishing parallel market in currency.
Economic analysts warned afterwards that the country would grind to a halt as it had come to rely on private fuel imports by dealers who bought foreign currency on the black market.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent in Harare reported that long, meandering queues, previously a familiar landmark at fuel stations, resurfaced while despondent commuters waited hours for the few available buses plying their routes.
Zimbabwe has faced serious fuel shortages since 1999 and the government blames sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and members of his inner circle at the time for this.
When the shortages are at their worst, some gas stations go without fuel for months, forcing buses and private cars off the road and leaving many commuters no option but to walk or cycle to their workplaces. — Sapa-AFP