- Note. The 700% inflation figure is predicted by the Zim
Govt and they normally base it on many fixed and controlled prices. However,
recently, economists said the real level of inflation there was currently
1,000% - when Govt figures were in the region of 500%+. So I would guess,
if the Govt is predicting 700% inflation for next year, that we're really
looking at maybe 1,400%. It was also announced in SA that the Zim economy
was expected to shrink by 33% this year.
-
- Mugabe blames all these economic problems on ficticious
"British and American sanctions". Funny isn't it? Yet, most Zimbabweans
believe this. The reality is, this is the result of running the white farmers
off the land. - Jan
-
- Daily Mail & Guardian - SA
-
- (Sapa-AFP) -- Zimbabwe's finance minister on Thursday
predicted the Southern African country's economic crisis will deepen next
year, with inflation hitting 700% and the economy continuing to shrink.
-
- Presenting his 2004 Budget in Parliament, Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa admitted the country has gone through "severe economic
hardships" this year and projected that the economy will contract
by another 13,2% in the six weeks before the end of the year.
-
- Meanwhile, a two-day strike called by the country's main
labour union over the deteriorating economic situation failed to take off,
two days after police had quashed an attempt to stage anti-government protests
around the Southern African nation.
-
- The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had called
for a mass job stayaway on Thursday and Friday in protest at the arrests
of scores of labour and civic activists during the demonstrations earlier
this week.
-
- The two-day strike, called to coincide with the unveiling
of the 2004 Budget, was also supposed to drive home the grievances of ordinary
Zimbabweans, struggling to survive amid triple-digit inflation, rampant
unemployment and critical shortages of essential commodities blamed on
a severe foreign currency shortfall.
-
- But the situation was normal in central Harare on Thursday
with traffic as heavy as usual and long queues of people waiting outside
banks to withdraw money from automatic teller machines.
-
- There was no extraordinary police presence, but one resident
of the Avenues suburb, which neighbours President Robert Mugabe's official
State House, reported a higher number of police patrols there.
-
- Mugabe was in Parliament listening to the Budget proposals,
which began with a preamble in which Murerwa described inflation as "our
number-one enemy".
-
- Runaway inflation will need to be arrested and eventually
reduced to a single digit through "rigorous" implementation of
policies, Murerwa said.
-
- Zimbabwe's rate of inflation has more than doubled since
the start of this year, climbing from 208% in January to nearly 526% last
month.
-
- Murerwa projected that inflation would continue to skyrocket,
hitting 700% in the first quarter of 2004.
-
- The government early this year said it aimed to reduce
inflation to 96% by year's end.
-
- ZCTU spokesman Mlamleli Sibanda confirmed the call for
a nationwide strike had gone unheeded on Thursday, but he said the union
was still urging its members to down tools.
-
- "We hope by the end of Thursday and on Friday things
will have changed. The information is still circulating," he said.
-
- As the Budget was being presented, lawyer Andrew Makoni
said police wanted to charge 49 rights activists and labour officials arrested
during Tuesday's protests under the country's tough Public Order and Security
Act for "going ahead with a prohibited demonstration".
-
- Among the group of protesters still in police custody
were ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo; the group's secretary general, Wellington
Chibebe; and vice-president Lucia Matibenga.
-
- Sibanda said in a statement that the arrested protesters
were being denied access to their lawyers, who were "in the process
of applying for an urgent aplication in the High Court for the leaders
to appear in court today or be released without any charges".
-
-
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- http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23843
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