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Zimbabwe's 'poor millionaires' spending Z$1m on a tin of beans
Jane Fields, The Scotsman
November 17, 2007

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1816192007

THE price of a tin of baked beans passed the $1 million mark in Zimbabwe yesterday as leaked figures showed annual inflation had surged to almost 15,000 per cent, the highest in the world.

The Central Statistical Office recorded that inflation in October had gone up to 14,840.6 per cent. President Robert Mugabe's price cutting measures of June have failed to tame the rate.

Shop shelves are empty of basic foodstuffs such as meat, margarine, sugar and cooking oil. Shoppers are forced to queue for scarce goods - including the state-controlled Herald daily newspaper.

Yesterday a can of locally-produced baked beans was selling for more than Z$1,200,000 - about £19.50 on the official exchange rate, though unofficial rates will see this worth just 66p - in a small grocery store in eastern Zimbabwe.

Many Zimbabweans survive on less than $10 million a month. They joke bitterly that they are "poor millionaires".

Robert Mugabe employed a witch doctor who claimed she could produce diesel from rocks in an attempt to ease the nation's crippling fuel shortages, it has emerged.

She was given two head of cattle, three buffaloes, money, a car and a piece of land, promising in return to use spells to produce fuel. But instead of invoking spirits, she bought refined diesel from truckdrivers and piped it into the rocks.

State media said President Mugabe himself ordered Rotina Mavunga's arrest for fraud last month - more than a year after the saga began.

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