Zimbabwe Business Watch : Week 46
November 10th, 2008
Business people saw more of the same as everything escalated at an alarming pace, from the price of services and inputs at over 60% per day, as well as the crisis that confronts companies that cannot see that their workforces are being remunerated fairly.
As the economy begins to openly dollarise, less and less forex becomes available to business people at the manufacturing level. More and more goods are imported soaking up the cash that comes mainly from the Diaspora, which now constitutes just under 50% of the total foreign exchange earning capacity of the country. More mines begin to close as do factories that can no longer survive in the mayhem.
The USD is now exchanged at rates heading towards the two hundred trillion mark.
Workers draw cash one day, sleep the night on the pavement, and then rejoin the queue the next morning to ensure that what they draw is more than the cost of the Tshova, a local minibus taxi.
Rand and USD inflation is now hitting the economy as the cost of goods and services, priced in forex, begins to rise dramatically.
