Zimbabwe: It appears the period of relatively low inflation is over…
Zimbabwe’s most recent rate of inflation is now 8,000%. Sadly it appears that the current period of relatively low inflation is over and according to the IMF by the end of this year inflation could reach 100,000%.
The Zimbabwean finance minister scoffed at such reports calling them pure speculation. The official Zimbabwe monetary position is that the inflation rate is simply too high to calculate. From the BBC:
(Central Statistical Office’s Moffat) Nyoni said the Central Statistical Office has delayed the release of the inflation figure until an accurate way of calculating it can be found.
Furthermore, Nyoni noted that even if they had a way of calculating the inflation they would still be hampered by the fact that there are simply no goods for sale in the country. Shops are bare and the few transactions that are being made are happening on the black market.
Maize meal, bread, meat, cooking oil, sugar and other basic goods used to measure inflation largely disappeared from shops after another failed attempt of Dictator Robert Mugabe to control the economy by force and decree.
As a reminder, Zimbabwe was once a relatively stable economy that was a net exporter of food. However that was before Mugabe decided to curry favor from potential voters by forcibly seizing land away from white farmers and putting it in the hands of members of his political party-who sadly were not farmers. The blacks who had been working on the farms were run off as lackeys to the white devil land owners. Food production all but stopped creating the enormous humanitarian crisis the country is now facing.
But let’s not forget that this is our fault. Mugabe’s raping of his country is simply a reaction to the aftereffects of colonization that we supported. So when it is all said and done we need to go in and fix it. No matter what happens, it is our fault. Don’t forget that and don’t worry if you do because Mugabe will remind you. In a keynote speech to the G15 he blamed rich nations for reverting to “colonial times of unmitigated plunder.”
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