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Zimbabweans survive on bags of tricks as inflation runs amok
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
February 17, 2008

http://www.stockhouse.com/mediascan/news.asp?newsid=10204203

Victor Nyamutowa, a 37-year-old Zimbabwean carpenter, gives prospective customers invoices declaring in distinct black print: "This quotation is valid for 0 days."

"If I am lenient and give people invoices that allow them to come back and buy when it's convenient for them, the money they bring will not be enough to buy new materials," says Nyamutowa. "I will be the loser in the end."

The carpenter, who owns a furniture workshop on the southern outskirts of Harare, knows customer credit is a luxury he cannot afford if he wants to keep his business running in a country with the world's highest rate of inflation.

That unenviable status was confirmed once more last week when officials announced the rate had jumped to a scarcely believable 66,212 percent, gaining 39,714.5 percentage points from the previous monthly figure.

The government's failure to get to grips with what central governor chief Gideon Gono has called "an economic HIV" means that Zimbabweans are perpetually playing catch-me-if-you-can with galloping prices.

The economic meltdown has helped fuel a rise in the level of unemployment in the southern African country that is believed to be at more than 80 percent.

Even those lucky enough to have jobs often skip meals, while some cycle or walk long distances to work to stretch their incomes to the next pay day.

The economy is expected to be one of the main battlegrounds of joint presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29.

Few believe that the inflation rate will do anything but continue on its upward trajectory if veteran President Robert Mugabe wins a sixth term.

Even if main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai or Mugabe's former finance minister Simba Makoni were to triumph, analysts do not expect the five-figure inflation dragon to be any tamed any time soon.

Gibson Maina, a clerk with a retail firm, reflects a general weariness among Zimbabweans as he explains how he has long since struck goods like milk and margarine off his shopping list.

"I can't even remember when I last had buttered bread, bacon or eggs and tea with milk," Maina says.

"Many of us have adjusted or lowered our standards as we cannot keep pace with the rapidly increasing prices. We have to do with a basic breakfast of black tea and plain bread and when peanuts are in season, you can have peanut butter from the villages.

"Even if you have a good job, prices are always going up things that we never used to regard as luxuries are now beyond our reach. You can smile and thank your company after getting a salary increase today but by the end of the month you will be asking for more."

Some companies have taken to paying staff part of their salaries in grocery hampers in order to cushion them against the increasing prices.

Many workers meanwhile have resorted to moonlighting to supplement their incomes. In some offices, workers operate "mini-kiosks" under their desks selling anything from lollipops, home-packed popcorn, through to scarce goods such as cooking oil, imported cologne and clothes.

According to Wellington Chibebe, secretary-general of the pro-Tsvangirai Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), many people are now only turning up to their workplace out of a sense of duty.

"You find a person earning 150 million still going to work when their monthly transport cost in 270 million dollars," said Chibebe.

"Most of them spend the better part of the work hours engaging in deals to make a living. You have school teachers who double as vendors and cross-border traders while some operate their own schools at home to earn extra money."

The Mugabe government has tried a series of inflation remedies in recent months, including a pricing blitz launched last June in which retailers and businesses were ordered to halve their prices.

However Operation Dzikisa Mutengo (Reduce Prices) was effectively abandoned two months later after it resulted in widespread shortages in stores and a strengthening of the underground market.

The veteran president, who has ruled the former British colony since 1980, has blamed his country's economic woes on Western sanctions imposed after he allegedly rigged his re-election in 2002.

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