Fed up with lies
April 26th, 2005
I’m fed up! Fed up about the lies being peddled about the economy! But one good thing is that since the elections, the lies are becoming more difficult to hide. Firstly, prices are shooting up exposing the lie about the inflation rate – I don’t know what it really is, but I know it’s not the 110%-or-so published officially. Secondly, I hear that there is going to be an official devaluation – but there wasn’t supposed to be any exchange rate except the official one of $6000 approx to the US dollar – now we’re being told that actually there IS a parallel market, and that we will have to devalue by about 90% to bring the official rate to the street rate. Which brings us to a related point (number three) – 90% devaluation will hardly achieve that end – by my calculations, it should be closer to 150%….. And of course the fuel queues which are getting longer and more chaotic – that’s point number four. I’m sure there are more, but my mind can’t get round it all. All I know is that I’ve got less money in my pocket to feed my family now.
December 31st, 2005 18:18
2005 December 31
Looking back, Maude’s (2005 April 26) economic projections, of eight months ago, were modest.
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation for 2005 finished at 502%. (RBZ)
The official exchange rate for the Zim Dollar was floated and the foreign currency auctions were abandoned by November.
At year end, the Interbank (official rate) was about Z$80,000 per 1 US Dollar, while the parallel rate was over Z$100,000 .
The current minimum wage is about Z$5 million per month and some economists predict that it will be Z$7 million by March 2006.
May 2006 bring better times to all Zimbabweans.
Blair