Zimbabwe’s central bank on Tuesday said it was indefinitely postponing a much awaited mid-year monetary policy statement due next week to give time to analyse the implications of government price controls and an imminent supplementary budget.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has been tasked by President Robert Mugabe’s government to lead efforts to turn around an economy battered by eight years of recession.
Gono’s twice yearly statements have become the major highlights of Zimbabwe’s economic calendar but some analysts say official policies such as last month’s directive to slash prices by half continue to frustrate efforts to revive the economy.
Gono said in a statement that he had postponed the policy announcement as a result of ”the need for more time to enable the Reserve Bank to analyse the policy implications and way forward with regards to the on-going government programme on pricing structures in the economy”.
He added that there was also a ”need for the monetary policy statement to draw synergies from the imminent fiscal supplementary budget statement”.
Gono has previously said high government expenditure has helped fuel inflation, which at 4 500% is the highest in the world and dramatises a crisis that has pushed unemployment to 80% and caused shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.
Mugabe’s government three weeks ago rolled back prices of basic goods and services to June 18 levels after increases of up to 300% in one week piled more pressure on desperate consumers.
The central bank chief has urged the government to be cautious on its price crackdown after most shop shelves were left empty by consumers scrambling to buy basic goods fearing manufacturers would reduce supplies.
Mugabe, in power for the last 27 years and seeking another five-year presidential term next year, denies charges of economic mismanagement and instead blames the West for sabotaging the economy to punish him for handing over white-owned farms to blacks. – Reuters