Accountant Shawn Kureva was left cursing his decision to delay buying cement at a Harare hardware store until he had compared prices elsewhere in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe.
”The price for a bag of cement was Z$300 000 and I had enough money for five but thought it was not a bad idea to compare prices,” he said of his shopping trip last Friday.
”When I went around to other shops in the neighbourhood, I found cement was out of stock. By the time I went back to the first shop in the afternoon the price had shot up to Z$850 000 dollars a bag so I bought two instead of five.”
It could have been worse. If he had waited until after the weekend, he would only have had enough for one bag as the price had shot up again to Z$1,2-million by Monday.
There are thousands of similar stories every day in Zimbabwe.
With the country’s world-record inflation driving prices haywire there is a new unwritten law for shoppers — buy now or pay double later.
”The price escalations are not sustainable,” said Best Doroh, an analyst with the financial group ZB Holdings.
”Somehow things will have to come to a conclusion at some point. We need stability. As it is people can’t plan their family budgets or put savings aside for the future.
”Those who have a little excess cash are converting it to more stable currencies.”
The official exchange rate is 250 Zimbabwe dollars to the US dollar but on the burgeoning black market, the rate has been oscillating since Monday between 150,000 dollars and 130,000 dollars to the greenback.
The inflation rate was last announced surreptitiously in a newspaper report at 3 714% in April and is now believed to be well beyond 4 500 percent.
Outgoing United States ambassador to Harare Christopher Dell said inflation, referred to as ”our number one enemy” in government circles, would end the year at 1,5-million percent and end up toppling veteran President Robert Mugabe.
Over the past weeks, prices of some goods and services went up more than 300% with a one-way bus fare from the suburb of Chitungwiza to downtown Harare soaring from Z$7 000 in April to Z$60 000 this week.
Similarly, the price of a two-litre bottle of cooking oil has risen from Z$250 000 to Z$600 000 within a month.
To cushion workers, some companies are giving staff grocery hampers as part of their monthly pay.
The consumer watchdog Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) on Monday resuscitated consumer buying clubs where the CCZ organises shoppers into groups to buy goods in bulk direct from wholesalers and manufacturers.
On Monday the government ordered businesses to slash prices of basic goods such as cooking oil, soap, bread and fuel by half as part of a clutch of measures to stall escalating prices.
But economics professor Tony Hawkins expressed doubt the new price freeze would arrest the inflation spiral.
”Logically, if controls are imposed arbitrarily without taking into consideration the production costs, firms will say they can’t produce,” Hawkins said.
”Shortages will be the natural result and this will see the scarce commodities appearing at much higher prices on the parallel market.”
After the announcement of the cuts, shoppers flocked to supermarkets but emerged dejected as basic foodstuffs had been taken off the shelves.
Announcing the latest price freeze, Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu said the recent spate of increases was the work of the country’s enemies seeking to ignite a popular revolt against the government.
The government often blames the country’s economic decline on targeted sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on Mugabe and members of his ruling elite following presidential elections in 2002.
Last week a state daily claimed to have unearthed a grand plot, masterminded by the US and former colonial master Britain, to destroy Zimbabwe’s economy.
”[The] Chronicle can reveal that the British and United States governments, after failing to incite public revolt against the government of Zimbabwe, are now working overtime to destroy the economy, mutilate the Zimbabwe dollar, foment civil unrest and then dangle a US$3-billion ‘rescue package’ to win the support of gullible politicians,” the newspaper reported. — AFP
