Zimbabwe’s black market economy;Mugabe to blame

Webmaster — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:17:24 +0000

Zimbabwe is a country with an inflation rate of over 2 million and the food inflation is incalculable as supermarket shelves are permanently empty.
- The Zimbabwe dollar has been on a free fall since 1997 when Mugabe decide to give the so-called war veterans £50 000 –00 each, without consulting the finance minister and the economists in the country.- Banks were stretched to dish out the money, there was free spending, with some war veterans buying vegetables for livestock.

- From the date Friday 13 November 1997 the economy fell in the hands of the black market and reserve bank governors have not been able to get hold of it or come with any viable solution to it.

- Over the past 10 years we have seen fire-fighting measures being employed, half baked economic policies, of which one after the other they have all failed.

- Israel and Palestine have been at war since biblical times but do not have an inflation rate as bad as Zimbabwe’s, neither is there currency as worthless as Zimbabwe’s.

- It does not need an economist to identify the problems of this once great and vibrant economy. It is clear to all and sundry except those in power take away Robert Mugabe with his fiscal and monetary policies and you will bring back the economy on its feet.
Mugabe knows he is the root problem but because of what he has done, either maiming killings, rapes committed in the name of Zanu PF as his military, militias and thugs suppressed the opposition.

Take for example £1 equivalent to 150 trillion Zimbabwe dollars on the black market Did you ever dream that one day you would wake up and utter the word trillion. Well Mugabe is a miracle performer, he has brought all denominations to the point that we now have to look for an inventor to produce calculators special to the Zimbabwe situation. How cool is that BOB. You must be proud of yourself in a sick way.

The question on every Zimbabweans lips is who fuels this inflation and enables the black market to thrive. How is it possible that the reserve bank can issue a new currency today and within six hours of its issue the black market is already flooded with the new bill and you can even have suitcases full of the currency in neighbouring countries.

Such clandestine operations can only be done by those who are privy to the information and operations of the reserve bank. So the question is if the reserve bank is that leaky, can Gideon Gono be trusted in the position. Can Zanu PF be trusted as it is the Zanu PF government which has fuelled inflation and fed the black market. Can the Zanu PF government be trusted, when some of its rank and file are involved in this black market exchange.

Zimbabwe needs strong, practical, viable fiscal & monetary policies. Zimbabwe needs a radical, brutal overhaul to the economic situation, if it is to return to normalcy. The only way to succeed in doing this is by removing Mugabe, Gono, Zanu PF and their associates from the picture.

This article was written by Masumba Kadzviti and published in the Zimbabwejournalists.com

Masimba Kadzviti is in MDC activist based in the UK.

Zimbabwe Tops Astronomical Inflation Figures

Webmaster — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:26:09 +0000

By Elisha Shamba : Zimbabwe’s rate of inflation shot to over 11 million percent in June, the nation’s Central Statistical Office (CSO) stated.

Last week one of the country’s leading banks, Kingdom, said the country’s inflation rate
was more than 20 million percent. The bank predicted tougher times ahead of Zimbabwe in the absence of donor support and foreign investment.

A sharp rise in inflation in June coincided with campaigning for the June 27 run-off vote which MDC’s Morgan Tsvangai withdrew, citing violence which he said killed over 120 of his party’s supporters.

Starvation looms

Once considered a regional economic model, Zimbabwe has been in the throes of economic meltdown since the country embarked on a chaotic land reform programme that has decimated its agriculture. Zimbabwe’s overall maize production for 2008 is estimated to drop 28 percent lower than last year’s already low levels.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates 83 percent of Zimbabweans are living on less than two US dollars a day and that 45 percent of the total population is malnourished. The WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate that four million people- more than a third of 11.8 million Zimbabweans will need food assistance by next year. Eighty percent of the population are living below the poverty threshold, often skipping meals and walking long distances to stretch their income.

‘Economic emergency’

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono earlier this month called for a six-month freeze on prizes and wages in a bid to reign in spiralling inflation.

“Zimbabweans must realise that the country is in a practically building sated of socio-economic emergency. As such there is need for a universal moratorium on all incomes and prices of a minimum period of six months” he said.

The country’s Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi confirmed the new inflation figures but insisted other countries in the region were also suffering.

He said, “While our case has been aggravated by the illegal sanctions imposed by the Western powers, rising food prices are a world phenomenon because of the use of bio-fuel.”

Help form relatives abroad

According to central bank figures, remittances form Zimbabweans living abroad shot up by 226 percent to 45 million US dollars in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period last year. Long queues to pick up hard currencies such as the South African rand and the US dollar at the Zimbabwe’s money transfer agencies mean that the cash often runs out.

An estimated four million Zimbabweans are said to be living outside the country, many of them in neighbouring South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, UK , US , Canada and Australia.

A regional summit of southern African leaders in Johannesburg at the weekend failed to bring ruling party Zanu PF and opposition MDC to a settlement which is needed to tackle the nation’s urgent social and economic problems.

Hatnews » Gideon Gono

Zimbabwe’s black market economy;Mugabe to blame

Zimbabwe Tops Astronomical Inflation Figures