June inflation 13 000%: CCZPaul Nyakazeya of The Zimbabwe Independent
THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says its recent calculations for the monthly expenditure for an urban family of six shows that inflation for the month of June was more than 13,000%. The Central Statistical Office (CSO), the official source of Consumer Price Index numbers, has not released its figures since February when it reported annual inflation at 1,729%.
Two months ago businessdigest revealed that Finance minister Samuel Mumbengegwi, had directed the CSO to stop releasing the figures. The March figures were kept under wraps until central bank governor Gideon Gono revealed them during his interim monetary policy review.
...
According to the figures, a packet of 2kg rice recorded the highest jump of 34 714% up on last year’s figure while fresh milk (500ml) went up by 32 643%. Transport cost was up 27 172% while bread weighed in with 20 226%.
Imagine that ten dollar pizza instead costs 1300 dollars (I think I did my math right here). Now imagine unemployment runs at 80% and your salary, if you are one of the lucky ones, isn't even rising at one tenth the rate of inflation.
Now imagine, that even if you had the money, as of August first
importing food amounts over $200 US requires a government permit. Now imagine that even if you could get the permit, you could never leave the country because there is no fuel, only the state firm will be allowed to import fuel, and all fuel coupons issued by the government will no longer be honored. Now imagine that agricultural productivity has ended. Farms no longer produce food. Tractors no longer run.
Watch to see if the borders close. If they do, Zimbabwe is going to turn into a mass grave of tremendous proportions.