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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=zimbabwe

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1863343/posts

RFuel Shortage Brings Zimbabwe To Halt
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 7-10-2007 | Byron Dziva

Posted on 07/09/2007 6:49:40 PM PDT by blam

Fuel shortage brings Zimbabwe to halt

By Byron Dziva in Harare
Last Updated: 2:03am BST 10/07/2007

Zimbabwe’s economy was approaching paralysis yesterday as petrol stations across the country ran dry.

President Robert Mugabe’s regime has ordered all retailers to cut fuel prices by 60 per cent, a move that forces them to sell petrol at a loss.

As a result, filling stations across the country have stopped selling altogether and petrol is only available on the black market, at five times the official price.

Without fuel, the entire economy is steadily shutting down.

“It is certainly making a bad situation worse. Many companies will stop functioning,” said John Robertson, an independent economist in the capital, Harare.

A bus driver in Harare said: “At the moment, even on the black market, there is nothing.”

Basic foodstuffs have already vanished from supermarket shelves thanks to the regime’s order that all retail prices should be frozen at their June 18 level.

Inflation has reached such a level that one banana costs the same amount as 15 four-bedroom houses seven years ago. The regime’s behaviour has dismayed many business people.

Masimba Kambarami, the chairman of the petroleum association, said: “Fuel is not indigenous, it has to be treated carefully.

“If you arbitrarily introduce new prices you trigger panic buying, then subsequent shortages.”

Inflation officially runs at 4,530 per cent - the highest level in the world.