Zimbabwe on edge as inflation hits 1,000%

[ECH1969]

ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation rate topped 1,000 per cent in April, underlining the severity of an economic crisis analysts say could trigger protests against Robert Mugabe's government.

Zimbabwe, in its eighth year of recession, has the fastest shrinking economy of a country outside a war zone, according to the World Bank, and the highest inflation rate in the world.

The official statistics agency said yesterday the annual inflation rate hit a record 1,042.9 percent in April after rising 913.6 per cent in March.

Some shops no longer put prices on commodities, saving themselves the trouble of changing them every day. With a carton of orange juice costing 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars (£2.70) and a kilo of beef up to a million dollars, people carry their money in large bags even for simple shopping trips.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=715052006

[UpInArms]

1. gack!!!!

related article: Zimbabwe's inflation rate crosses 1,000-percent threshold

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060512/bs_afp/zimbabweeconomy

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe said its inflation rate had crossed the landmark 1,000-percent threshold, arguably the highest in the world, with economists expressing pessimism about any major improvement soon.

The Central Statistical Office said the year-on-year inflation rate in April was 1,042.9 percent, up 129.3 percentage points from March, in an economy considered to be shrinking faster than that of any other country in the world not at war.

"This means that on average goods and services normally purchased by households for final use in Zimbabwe were about 11 times as expensive in April 2006 as they had been 12 months before," Moffat Nyoni, the CSO's acting director, told a news conference.

"A bundle of goods and services that cost 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars in April 2005 would on average cost 1,142,900 dollars in April 2006," he said.

<snip>

The southern African nation is in the throes of an economic crisis, characterized not only by hyperinflation but also by soaring poverty levels and unemployment, and chronic shortages of fuel and basic goods.

...more...

:hide:

[Vogon_Glory]

2. Bystanders' Blasted Hopes for Zimbabwe

I was one of those bystanders who was cheered to see the collapse of Ian Smith's white supremacist regime in what was then Rhodesia. I had high hopes that the former insurgent leaders would rise to and meet the challenge of creating an ordered, prosperous, and just society in what was once southern Africa's second largest economy. Instead, Robert Mugabe has turned Zimbabwe into a one-party dictatorship, slaughtered thousands of his opponents, expropriated land and property and given those lands and property to his political supporters, wrecked the Zimbabwean economy, and driven tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of Zimbabweans into seeking work abroad.

[sweetheart]

4. Bystander's Blasted hopes for America

I was one of those bystanders who was cheered to see the collapse of Bill Clinton's corporatist regime in what was then the United States of America. I had high hopes that the former opposition leaders would rise to and meet the challenge of creating an ordered, prosperous, and just society in what was once North America's largest economy. Instead, George Bush has turned Amurika into a one-party dictatorship, slaughtered thousands of his opponents, expropriated land and property and given those lands and property to his political supporters, wrecked the US economy, and driven tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of Americans into seeking work abroad.

Gosh, the text is getting very replaceable, same thuggery, different country.

[1932]

3. You can thank the IMF and World Bank's hot money inflow and outflow for

that, at least in part.

http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415288509&id=kG69U8qnccAC&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=%22hot+money%22+zimbabwe&sig=mJ6j7R-I4HQGxir2kVwtYhWJYSo

[ButterflyBlood]

6. Or you can blame the idiot running the place

There's a reason similar countries don't have problems quite as bad.

[SoCalDem]

8. I am not up to speed on this, but isn't this where they took land

away from the white farmers, burned their homes, and gave the land to the indigenous people? The food grown before, fed the nations, and apparantly now, no one knows how to farm?

[ButterflyBlood]

9. That's one way of putting it, but wihta more positive spin

It would be more accurate to say that they seized land from white farmers (most of whom were from families that had lived there for 3 generations or more, and many had legimately purchased the land) and gave it all to political cronies of the dictator Mugabe, while leaving 90% of the blacks in such as miserable conditions as they were under the racist white minority regime. And now Mugabe has been engaging in rather nasty pogroms against other tribal groups.

I would've been quite happy to see Ian Smith go in 1980 had I been alive then, but this is a classic case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"

[SoCalDem]

10. Like I said, I was not that up on it.. But giving the land to non-farmers

especially cronies opf the crooked leader was a very bad idea.. Little people always take it in the shorts..no matter where they live :(

[1932]

11. You should read S. Kinzer's Overthrow & about United Fruit, Honduras,

and Guatemala if you think giving land to "non-farmers" is a bad idea.

If the mega corps were convinced that it wasn't going to change feudal, easy-to-exploit economies into working, capitalist economies with large, politically powerful middle classes, they wouldn't have fought it so hard (and they wouldn't try to spread Eddy Bernays-style lies about it...).

[Jamison]

5. Americans should really take note of this.

Because the same thing could happen here with the economic policies of the neo-cons in charge.

[Robbien]

12. With the way the dollar is crashing; we should be studying this

to try to find out ways to survive when its our turn.

A great shame is that when we go down, these guys will be taking another hit.

[Psephos]

14. Please

The last time the dollar was at current levels was...drum roll...1997. Somehow the republic survived. As I recall, the economy didn't seem so bad then, either.

Despite popular mythology that somehow a weak dollar = imminent disaster, the truth is a weak dollar helps correct other excesses, including demand for cheap imports. It also makes exports more attractive.

Peace.

[ButterflyBlood]

7. MMore handiwork of the 3rd world's biggest disaster: Mugabe

Zimbabweans ought to drag that idiot out of his office and hang up at the nearest lamp post.

[Zynx]

13. I generally don't support that sort of thing, but with Mugabe...

I can't say that I'd cry.

[rucky]

15. How do things like this happen?

any economics-types care to take a stab at it?