Inflation in Zimbabwe at 782%

[Kenazo]

What an awful situation. Zimbabwe was actually doing pretty good economically for an African nation. Hard to know what they should have rather done. Years of oprresion from the minority white population did need to be reformed, but obviously this wasn't the way to do it.

Source

Inflation in Zimbabwe Soars to 782 Pct. By MICHAEL HARTNACK, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 11, 7:10 AM ET


HARARE, Zimbabwe - Inflation for the 12 months to February soared to an all-time high of 782 percent in Zimbabwe, the Central Statistical Office has announced.

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In a broadcast Saturday, state radio said prices rose 27.5 percent during the month of February alone, with an average family of five needing Zimbabwean $9 million, or $90 at the official exchange rate, just to meet basic food needs.

Trade unions say that those still in formal employment ? about 20 percent of the work force ? were earning an average of Z$5 million to Z$6 million ($50-$60) a month. Workers on formerly white-owned commercial farms, by contrast, were receiving as low as Z$300,000 ($3) a month from their employers, many of them beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's "fast track" land redistribution program.

Farm production, exports and the value of the Zimbabwean dollar, worth $2 at 1980 independence, went into free fall after Mugabe ordered seizure of 5,000 farms in February 2000. United Nations agencies say 3 million Zimbabweans are now dependent on international food relief.

The country was for many years a major food exporter to the region.

Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the government-run Statistical Office, said soaring rentals were a significant factor while prices of food and nonalcoholic beverages rose 824 percent in the 12 months to the end of February 2006.

State radio forecast inflation would fall to 200 percent by the year end in the wake of a predicted "bumper harvest by new farmers," but an all-party parliamentary committee warned before the November start of this season's rains that production would be at an all-time low due to shortages of diesel, seed, fertilizer, chemicals, functioning farm machinery and skilled labor.

Farmworkers of Malawian, Zambian or Mozambican descent have been forced to return to their parents' and grandparents' countries of origin following eviction by Mugabe's land recipients.

The International Monetary Fund's Executive Board decided Wednesday not to allow Zimbabwe to use fund general resources, even though it had settled $120 million in arrears it owed this facility.

It noted that "Zimbabwe's economic crisis calls for urgent implementation of a comprehensive policy package comprising several mutually reinforcing actions in the area of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms."

 

[jrenz]

I didn't know they even had money

 

[charrison]

THis is country that not only could provide the its population needed, but also had significant agriculture exports. Now this country population is starving and they are even allowing hunting on wildlife reserves so they can attempt to feed the population. Odd that this has received so little attention in the media.

 

[theeedude]

Who wants to be a Zimbabwean Millionaire?

 

[RichardE]

Should have left the proper government in power, instead of forming a government with people that obviously did not know how to run the place. 🙂 Bet those "oppressed" people are wishing they were "oppresed" again. 🙂

 

[imported_Tango]

Originally posted by: RichardE
Should have left the proper government in power, instead of forming a government with people that obviously did not know how to run the place. 🙂 Bet those "oppressed" people are wishing they were "oppresed" again. 🙂

The proper government? Mugabe is a bad leader, but he's been elected by democratic vote in 2002. So his government is proper like any other one.

Also those oppressed people voted the wrong men for the right reason. Mugabe has done nothing to return the country to the black people like he said he would have done under the regular "willing to buy, willing to sell" plan. He just gave the land to his close political allies.

High inflation and declining economy is a result of corruption and bad government not of black leadership.