Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, has today spoken on the skyrocketing prices that have taken place in Zimbabwe during the wake of COVID-19.
Responding to questions before the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance, Ncube accused the private sector of not honouring the price moratorium.
“What we tried to do is we tried to put a price moratorium at the being of COVID-19 but then we noticed that shops and the private sector had not honoured the handshake arrangement that we put in place,” he said. (sic)
“Again I would like to urge them to really adhere to what we agreed which is have a price moratorium. There was no reason why prices had to shoot up just before COVID-19.” (sic)
The Finance Minister also said what affected the price shooting was meeting targets and the parallel market.
On meeting targets, the Minister said anticipations were lower demand during the COVID-19 period and management in companies raised the prices of goods to meet expected targets for the month or for the year.
“The other effect is the parallel market itself, which is the biggest driver of prices so once that goes up that then impacts the prices in the shops,” Ncube said.
The skyrocketing prices have been accompanied by the cost of living going up by ZW$324 to ZW$7 171 by the end of April this year according to a Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) report.
Besides the skyrocketing prices, the Minister also spoke on shops denying local RTGS opting for foreign currency, which the government permitted during the COVID-19 era.
“This (denying local currency) is illegal obviously, they should not refuse and they should accept,” Ncube said.
