{"id":77674,"date":"2023-05-10T12:10:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T10:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide"},"modified":"2023-05-10T14:53:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T12:53:46","slug":"cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>By UK Correspondent<\/b><\/p>\n

THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and established a committee to \u201cinvestigate and monitor\u201d as retailers make adjustments in response to the fall in value of the Zimbabwe dollar.<\/p>\n

The local currency has lost nearly half its value since last year despite various measures introduced by the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank (RBZ) to stem the slide including gold coins and, lately, gold backed digital coins.<\/p>\n

Although the RBZ\u2019s auction rate stood at ZWD1125,00 to the US dollar Tuesday, the more widely used black market rate was more than double at between ZWD2,500 and ZWD2,700.<\/p>\n

A picture showing the retail cost of a lotion which topped ZWD43,000 trended on social media Tuesday with users expressing shock at the spiral in prices of basic commodities against eroding incomes.<\/p>\n

Addressing a post-cabinet press conference in the evening, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said a cabinet committee has been established to probe the price increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cCabinet discussed at length the price and basic food supply situation following a brief on the matter by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Hon. Dr. Sekai Irene Nzenza,\u201d said Mutsvangwa in her statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nation is being informed that Cabinet is concerned by the spiralling prices of the 14 basic goods especially bread, flour, cooking oil and mealie-meal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister of Industry and Commerce is already engaging the concerned stakeholders including manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and other associations on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added; \u201cGiven the urgency of the matter, Cabinet has set up a Committee to quickly investigate, monitor and make appropriate recommendations to Cabinet with a view to bringing sanity to the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Committee will comprise the following Ministers: Industry and Commerce; Finance and Economic Development; and Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, the Minister of Industry and Commerce will issue an appropriate statement on the matter. Cabinet wishes to assure the nation that corrective measures will be taken in order to protect the transacting public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The central bank is hoping the newly introduced digital tokens will help stem price pressures but analysts are not convinced.<\/p>\n

They say the measures do not address the root cause of the currency slide which is the RBZ printing money for government spending which is expected to increase due to this year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are printing \u2014 we are in an election period,\u201d local economist Tinashe Murapata told the UK based Financial Times. \u201cUnfortunately, (the country\u2019s) revenues are just not enough. We have an insatiable expenditure. It will take deep-seated institutional reforms to solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also downplayed the effectiveness of the digital tokens, urging Harare to use conventional means to address the country\u2019s currency crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cA careful assessment should be conducted to ensure the benefits from this measure outweigh the costs and potential risks including, for instance, macroeconomic and financial stability risks, legal and operational risks, governance risks, cost of forgone FX reserves,\u201d an IMF spokesperson told Bloomberg news in an emailed response to questions.<\/p>\n

Opposition politician and former finance minister Tendai Biti also said the government\u2019s currency measures and general economic policies had proved to be a \u201cdisaster\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal manufacturers are openly rejecting the RTGS (real time gross settlement), proving once more that an economy will never be run by statutory instruments. There is an urgent need to address the failed de-dollarisation experiment. What a disaster,\u201d Biti commented on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment has introduced a cocktail of measures to stabilise the local currency including gold coins but without success.<\/p>\n

\u201cZimbabwe has remained trapped by multiple crises \u2013 economic, political and social.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decay of infrastructure and the collapse of public services, the mismanagement of the exchange rate, the closure of political space, point to the fact that this lot is the worst regime in the history of governments\u201d.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and established a committee to \u201cinvestigate and monitor\u201d as retailers make adjustments in response to the fall in value of the Zimbabwe dollar. The local currency has lost nearly half its value since last year despite various measures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":77673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-77674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-africa-press","10":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","11":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\nCabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and establi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and establi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T10:10:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T12:53:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"929\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide\",\"name\":\"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide - zimbabwe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-10T10:10:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-10T12:53:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\"},\"description\":\"By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and establi ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":929,\"caption\":\"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"zimbabwe\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide - zimbabwe","description":"By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and establi ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide","og_description":"By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and establi ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide","og_site_name":"zimbabwe","article_published_time":"2023-05-10T10:10:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-10T12:53:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":929,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide","name":"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide - zimbabwe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-10T10:10:33+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-10T12:53:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4"},"description":"By UK Correspondent THE government has expressed concern over spiralling prices of basic commodities and establi ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683706550.18.jpg","width":800,"height":929,"caption":"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/cabinet-concerned-as-prices-hit-the-roof-zim-dollar-loses-40-of-its-value-as-rbz-measures-fail-to-stem-slide#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cabinet \u2018concerned\u2019 as prices hit the roof; Zim-dollar loses 40% of its value as RBZ measures fail to stem slide"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/","name":"zimbabwe","description":"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}