Zimbabwe Business Watch : Week 44
Inflation is soaring and business is taking every advantage of the perceived reduction in the intimidatory tactics of the price control authorities.
Some pundits place month on month inflation at over 25 000 % and this tends to be backed up by the PDL figures which have accelerated at a level just below this.
At the same time, the President has again threatened companies who, he claims, are sabotaging the economy.
Furthermore the National Incomes and Pricing Commission has said it will not approve price proposals from businesses which factor in parallel market foreign currency rates in their costs. It should be pointed out that this is the only basis by which a business can cost and what the commission is insinuating is that the official bank rate of 30 000 to the USD be used. The USD is currently trading closer to 2 million to 1 and this clearly illustrates the dilemma for business leaders who risk jail sentences for non compliance.
Retail outlets continue to retrench workers and some operations are planning to close country wide branches due to the lack of locally produced goods made by factories which cannot afford to operate at a loss. Power outages have increased in the last week as the local power utility experiences cuts in supplementary supplies from neighboring countries due to no payment of arrears.
