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Life is becoming more costly
IRIN News
November 03, 2006

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56241

HARARE - Zimbabwean families have had to fork out an extra US$100, almost an average salary, to pay for food and other essentials, over the course of a month, according to a government-funded consumer rights watchdog.

The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) reported that the cost of living for a family of six for the month of October surged to Z$141,706 (about US$565), up by 26.4 percent from Z$112,034 (about US$447) in September.

Health costs were the worst affected, up by a staggering 68.2 percent from September. It was followed by washing powder, which went up by 46.9 percent, bread 42.4 percent and white sugar 38.6 percent

The official newspaper, the Herald quoted CCZ, as saying, "The major mover for October was health as consultation fees and costs of medicines increased at most clinics in the month."

A consultation with a general physician could now set Zimbabwean families back by US$16, up from almost US$10 in September. A major operation, which could cost anything from US$5,900 is unaffordable for most ordinary Zimbabweans who earn salaries ranging between US$119 to US$160 a month.

Rising costs forced Nyasha Mugaviri, who lost her husband to HIV/AIDS in 2004, to pull her children out of private school. Mugaviri, 42, scrapes out a living by selling car parts that she sources from downtown Johannesburg in South Africa.

"I never imagined that life would become so difficult. The trade that I have now entered is strenuous and is dominated by men. But I have to soldier on because I should see all my children through school," she said.

The consumer watchdog has welcomed the gazetting of the National Incomes and Pricing Commission Bill, which would help set up the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC), whose mandate would be to regulate the prices of goods and services, among other functions.

"The timeous setting and gazetting of prices is vital to ensuring sustainable access to basic commodities for all consumers," said CCZ.

The government, through the central bank, has adopted several policies to stabilise the economy, but analysts say the measures have adversely affected thousands of people.

One such measure, designed to stem the illegal foreign currency trade, was last month's closure of 16 money transfer agencies, accusing them of changing remittances from Zimbabweans living abroad using unofficial rates.

The closure has added to Mugaviri's woes because she can no longer receive the US$100 that her sister in Canada used to send her monthly and the money that she was sent just before the closures remains trapped in the agency.

"That the RBZ [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] has the noble intention of making the economy better by stamping out corruption in the financial sector cannot be denied. The problem, though, is that its policies are ambushing the suffering majority and we are worse off now due to the turnaround policies that it has adopted," Mugaviri said.

Lovemore Matombo, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, said the monetary measures adopted by the central bank were pushing up unemployment figures, which is estimated to be over 70 percent.

"The central bank's measures are unfortunate because they have rendered thousands of people who were employed by the closed financial institutions jobless, in the process negatively affecting the livelihoods of many more who depend on those that have been affected," Matombo told IRIN.

John Robertson, an independent economist, said the central bank "is only dealing with the symptoms of the crisis" suggesting that in order to turnaround the economy, there was a need to find ways of reviving industry, which he said had shrunk by around 65 percent in the last six years, improve investor confidence by respecting property rights and increase production of export crops on farms.

Since government's fast-track land reforms launched in 2000, Zimbabwe's economy has gone into freefall. An annual inflation rate hovering at around 1,000 percent has seen unemployment levels rise and shortages of foreign currency have caused food, fuel and electricity to become scarce commodities.

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