Published by the government of Zimbabwe
19 August 2008
Harare — ZIMBABWE'S annual rate of inflation surged in June to 11,2 million percent, according to official figures just released.
It gained 9 035 045,5 percentage points from the May rate 2 233 713,4 percent, the Government's Central Statistical Office reported yesterday.
Inflation for food and non-alcoholic stood at 10 547 016,4 percent and at 11 728 979,2 percent, the CSO said in a statement.
Analysts said rising costs are forcing retailers to increase prices more than once a day in some instances.
Prices of goods and services are going up on a daily basis due to speculation.
Others had priced their goods using the foreign exchange transfer rate, pushing prices through the roof.
Retailers are passing on the high costs from suppliers to consumers and have blamed manufacturers for most price increases.
Three weeks ago the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe slashed 10 zeros from the local unit as banks found it increasingly difficult to process transactions running into quadrillions of dollars.
Central bank governor Dr Gideon Gono recently warned that inflation has now evolved to alarming levels that threatened socio-economic stability. He proposed a price and wage moratorium to slowdown inflation.
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What magic wand do you think Tsvangerai will bring to government to control and then radically reduce inflation, katz?
Tsvangerai, if installed as the head of Government brings two key things: Global goodwill for Zimbabwe and legitimacy of the Government in the eyes of the organisations and countries most able & willing to inject significant amounts of hard currency into the Government coffers. Yes that's the West, IMF, World Bank and all those demonic institutions Selector... demonic they may be, but I'm not noticing China jumping quickly in to bouy up Mugabe with the hard currency he's desperately needed all these years. Cold hard cash and debt write-offs are what the government needs to pay the wages of the… [Read Full Text]
Selector - I don't think that I could answer your question any better than African 32 has done. He/she and the other posters on this thread have cogently identified the problem; you only have to read what they are saying.
Ever heard of consumer confidence? Build confidence, inflation falls. People have no confidence in government and economy and inflation soars. It's pretty obvious selector.
Incidentally, making old coins into legitimate tender in the "new" currency was a monumentally stupid idea. Just imagine all those people with bags of coins at home going out to buy goods. Whatever they bought they were getting free, and therefore wouldn't have cared much about the prices they were paying, pushing the inflation envelope even further along.
Gono is an idiot trying increasingly more desperate tactics which will never make an iota of difference to the economy.
If I may answer for katz..1st fire Gono who is obviously getting richer by the day while the nation gets poorer. Why do we pretent not to see whats going on? Money transfere agencies and Online shopping controled/owned by ministers and Government officials. Haulage firms owned by South African ministers transporting fuel into Zimbabwe so they cant afford to have Feruka working fully. It does not need a miracle to sort the economy out.
Katz is dead on right, and the Rome analogy is so perfect that if the situation wasn’t so sad I would be laughing out loud. Magic wand? No such thing, but the melted mess that is Zimbabwe’s economy can not realistically be tamed without massive help from the west, and they have already stated, en masse, that no such help can be availed while the one time hero, turned megalomaniacal mass murderer, Mugabe, is in power… and for good reason : Mugabe & his Zanu-PF cohorts are the very reason it is such a mess.
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11 million in June; 20 million last month; 50 million this month!! Rome burns whilst the emperor fiddles!
Tsvangerai knows full well that he cannot become PM without real executive power. Mugabe must show some leadership and hand over real power lest there is nothing but ashes left to govern.