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We are all billionaires who can afford nothing. That is why I hate that old man
Catherine Philp, The Times (US)
July 03, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4258492.ece

Moses Chikomba does not care much about politics. He does not care whether the land is owned by blacks or whites. All he cares about is that his $50 billion monthly salary will buy him just two bars of soap. In three days it will buy only one. "What does the future hold for us?" he asks, clutching the near-worthless notes with their eye-popping strings of zeros. "We are all billionaires who can afford to buy nothing. That is why I hate that old man." Robert Mugabe may have murdered, tortured and beaten his way back into power. But, as he begins his sixth term in office, it is a different grudge most Zimbabweans hold against him. Hyperinflation is now galloping towards highs seen only by the likes of the Weimar Republic and postwar Hungary. Inflation is 8.5 million per cent and economists believe that it will rise to more than 100 million per cent by September. The numbers are so large they are almost meaningless. For the people of Zimbabwe the everyday struggle of living with hyperinflation is all too real. Moses is one of the fortunate; he works for foreigners who peg his salary to the US dollar. As soon as it is handed over, its value vanishes. His last pay packet amounted to US$25; now, two weeks later, it is worth only US$2. "As soon as I get it, I have to rush out and spend as much of it as I can," he says. "And then there is nothing left for the rest of the month." They survive on mealie meal and little else, food that will keep for weeks. Moses is paid cash in hand but most formally employed Zimbabweans are not, a remnant of the financial infrastructure that this once wealthy nation still boasts.

In an effort to curb spending, the Government has imposed limits on how much money can be withdrawn from the bank in a day, resulting in long, snaking queues outside every bank in town. Three weeks ago the limit was increasing to Z$25 billion, then about £7.50. Today the exchange rate is expected to surpass Z$25 billion to the US dollar. "Just a few weeks ago, 90 per cent of the people in this country had never heard the word billion," another friend told me. "Now we are wondering what comes after trillion?" No till in Zimbabwe is capable of ringing up all those zeros, so receipts come with little messages explaining that the amount due is rather more than it looks. "Our bill is quoted in mollars - millions of dollars," the bill at a neighbourhood Italian restaurant announces. "Please add six zeros to total due to get actual amount to be paid." One friend says she opened her yearly broadband bill to find it blank. An accompanying letter said the service would be provided free while the company worked out a "meaningful" charge. Another friend recounts a weekly shop costing $514billion, which she paid for by debit card. The shop till could only ring up $9 billion, so the card had to be swiped 57 times. Many people are forced to use cheques. Many places, though, refuse to take them because their value has plummeted by the time they are presented at the bank.

Restaurants have taken to printing price lists, separate from their menus, citing different prices for cash and cheques, with cheques charged at twice the cash rate. A simple pasta lunch for three yesterday cost $1.3 trillion - for cash. We gave up trying to add and calculate the zeros and paid in US dollars, a crime that could land the owners in jail. Dollarisation is, nevertheless, creeping in, clandestinely. At a well-known butcher's, a nod and wink to the right member of staff takes you behind the counter and out the back door where your "greens" are swiped in return for your meat. Even the cigarette vendors on the street will beg for "greens" now. Zimbabwe's ability to struggle on in the face of economic collapse has astonished many. Without the flood of remittances from the millions of Zimbabweans abroad the country would simply collapse. Many believe it may yet have only months to last. The decision of a German paper manufacturer to stop supplying banknote paper to Zimbabwe may hasten that moment, if the Government finds itself unable to print its way out of the crisis, as it has done for the past eight years. Zimbabwe's beleaguered opposition hopes that hyperinflation may yet succeed in doing what politics has failed to, and topple Mr Mugabe. Two days before the election, the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, told The Times that if he could not stop Mr Mugabe, the economy would. "Mr Mugabe can steal an election but he has no answers for this crisis," Mr Tsvangirai said. "I wish him well."

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