Zimbabwe inflation breaks 100,000%

[phk]

    Zimbabwe inflation breaks 100,000%

    16 hours ago

    The official rate of annual inflation in Zimbabwe has rocketed past the 100,000% barrier - by far the highest in the world.

    The government statistics office said inflation rose to 100,580% in January, up from 66,212% in December.

    The new official figure was still well below the rate calculated by independent analysts who estimate the real rate is closer to 150,000%.

    They give as examples supermarket receipts showing the price of chicken rose more than 236,000% to 15 million Zimbabwe dollars, or about 50p a pound between January 2007 and January 2008. Slightly lower increases in prices of sugar, tea and other basics brought down the overall average inflation to around 150,000%.

    Zimbabwe, a former regional breadbasket, is facing acute shortages of food, hard currency, gasoline and most basic goods in an economic meltdown blamed on disruptions in the agriculture-based economy after the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000 accompanied by political violence and turmoil.

    Economic hardship is a key issue in national elections scheduled for March 29 in which President Robert Mugabe, who is 84 on Friday, is facing the biggest challenge to his hold on power since he led the nation to independence in 1980.

    Inflation, food shortages and the crumbling of power, water, sanitation, roads, phones and communications and other utilities have fuelled deep divisions in the ruling Zanu-PF party.

    In early October, the state central statistical office gave official inflation at just below 8,000%. It then suspended its monthly updates on inflation because there was not enough in the shortage-stricken shops to calculate a regular basket of goods.

    November's already dizzying rate of 24,470% was announced in January and earlier this month the official rate for December was given as 66,212%, a dramatic escalation in the space of a month.

    The National Incomes and Prices Commission, the government's price control body, this month allowed sharp increases in the prices of the corn meal staple, sugar, bread and other basics in a bid to restore viable operations by producers and return the goods to empty shelves. But the new prices were still roughly half the price demanded on the black market and were unlikely to guarantee regular supplies to food stores.

[dead0man]

Good thing all those white farmers were forced off their land!  They didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But this is just more proof that the more the state sticks it's dick in the economy, the worse that economy will be.

[CARLHAYDEN]

    Zimbabwe inflation breaks 100,000%

    16 hours ago

    The official rate of annual inflation in Zimbabwe has rocketed past the 100,000% barrier - by far the highest in the world.

    The government statistics office said inflation rose to 100,580% in January, up from 66,212% in December.

    The new official figure was still well below the rate calculated by independent analysts who estimate the real rate is closer to 150,000%.

    They give as examples supermarket receipts showing the price of chicken rose more than 236,000% to 15 million Zimbabwe dollars, or about 50p a pound between January 2007 and January 2008. Slightly lower increases in prices of sugar, tea and other basics brought down the overall average inflation to around 150,000%.

    Zimbabwe, a former regional breadbasket, is facing acute shortages of food, hard currency, gasoline and most basic goods in an economic meltdown blamed on disruptions in the agriculture-based economy after the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000 accompanied by political violence and turmoil.

    Economic hardship is a key issue in national elections scheduled for March 29 in which President Robert Mugabe, who is 84 on Friday, is facing the biggest challenge to his hold on power since he led the nation to independence in 1980.

    Inflation, food shortages and the crumbling of power, water, sanitation, roads, phones and communications and other utilities have fuelled deep divisions in the ruling Zanu-PF party.

    In early October, the state central statistical office gave official inflation at just below 8,000%. It then suspended its monthly updates on inflation because there was not enough in the shortage-stricken shops to calculate a regular basket of goods.

    November's already dizzying rate of 24,470% was announced in January and earlier this month the official rate for December was given as 66,212%, a dramatic escalation in the space of a month.

    The National Incomes and Prices Commission, the government's price control body, this month allowed sharp increases in the prices of the corn meal staple, sugar, bread and other basics in a bid to restore viable operations by producers and return the goods to empty shelves. But the new prices were still roughly half the price demanded on the black market and were unlikely to guarantee regular supplies to food stores.

Excellent post!

Highly informative.

[Jens]

Good thing all those white farmers were forced off their land!  They didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But this is just more proof that the more the state sticks it's dick in the economy, the worse that economy will be.

Are you joking or have you no clue to what is going on in Zimbabwe?

[dead0man]

Did the Govt not take farms from white people and give them to blacks?  Did this not kill the economy?  Please tell me what part I've got wrong.  From wiki

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[Jens]

Did the Govt not take farms from white people and give them to blacks?  Did this not kill the economy?  Please tell me what part I've got wrong.  From wiki

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You are not wrong but there is more to it that just saying that the land was taken from white farmers and given to blacks. It was taken from a quite small land owing  upper class and given to Mugabe's friends. Zimbabwe needed a land reform since most land was owned by a small minority (and actually not used at intensively as it could have been) and Zimbabwe had (and still has) a large landless peasantry. - It is not at state doing anything - it is a mad dictator taking land from someone who opposes him and giving it to his supporters. He most certainly knew what he was doing. It just does make sense if you want the best for Zimbabwe, but he don't! He wants what's best for Mugabe.

[frihetsivrare]

The Workers World Party supports the Zimbabwean government.

http://workers.org/2007/world/zimbabwe-1120/

The writer managed to get one point right.  The British should not be controlling the area.  Everything else is all wrong.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

They didn't know what the hell they were doing.

This isn't all that far off being true, actually. The problem wasn't so much that the farmers (which, btw, in the context of Zimbabwe really means "landowner" rather than what you would think of as a farmer) were forced off "their" land, but that the land was then given to ZANU-PF hacks. The driving away of many (black, of course) farmworkers and the frequent destruction of agricultural machinary didn't exactly help matters either.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Or to summarize, the problem wasn't so much Mugabe's land reform policies as the fact that they weren't really land reform and was in fact basically just state-sanctioned theft.

[The Mikado]

Good thing all those white farmers were forced off their land!  They didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But this is just more proof that the more the state sticks it's dick in the economy, the worse that economy will be.

Oh, come now, I think you've picked a poor example!  Robert Mugabe is a criminal thug who has looted and destroyed his own country.  Not all state interventionists are murderous racists with no grasp of economics or basic human decency.

[dead0man]

This isn't all that far off being true, actually. The problem wasn't so much that the farmers (which, btw, in the context of Zimbabwe really means "landowner" rather than what you would think of as a farmer) were forced off "their" land, but that the land was then given to ZANU-PF hacks. The driving away of many (black, of course) farmworkers and the frequent destruction of agricultural machinary didn't exactly help matters either.

You don't have a problem with landowners being removed from their land, you just have a problem with the land being given to hacks?

[dead0man]

Good thing all those white farmers were forced off their land!  They didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But this is just more proof that the more the state sticks it's dick in the economy, the worse that economy will be.

Oh, come now, I think you've picked a poor example!  Robert Mugabe is a criminal thug who has looted and destroyed his own country.  Not all state interventionists are murderous racists with no grasp of economics or basic human decency.

Of course not.  But they all run their economies worse than the free market would otherwise.

[Cubby]

I said it before and I'll say it again. Britain should topple the Mugabe regime, rename the country Rhodesia, get the economy in order again, and then hand over power to Morgan Tsvangirai and his political party (MDC) which will lead back to Democracy, and then they can name the country whatever they'd like.

The farms seizures were wrong because they led to famine and hyperinflation. Land reform may have been needed, but it was done in the worst way possible.

[CARLHAYDEN]

This isn't all that far off being true, actually. The problem wasn't so much that the farmers (which, btw, in the context of Zimbabwe really means "landowner" rather than what you would think of as a farmer) were forced off "their" land, but that the land was then given to ZANU-PF hacks. The driving away of many (black, of course) farmworkers and the frequent destruction of agricultural machinary didn't exactly help matters either.

You don't have a problem with landowners being removed from their land, you just have a problem with the land being given to hacks?

One of the problems with many primitive countries is that much (often most) of the arable land is owned by a small number of people who often got the land by sweetheart deals with a government they controlled.

Now, it is critical that when land is taken by the government that just compensation be made to the owners.

For political stability, a significant percentage of the farming/ranching land should be owned by those who actually live on and work on the land.

Generally, redistribution of land over the past century by governments has been a chain of disasters.

An exception was the land reforms made in Japan after World War II.

[dead0man]

Sure.  I'd have much less problems with the idea of land redistribution if the owners are properly reimbursed.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Good lord that's bad even for Zimbabwe's standards.