Posted on 07/31/2007 10:27:11 AM PDT by TLI
Food shortages have become common in Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is to start circulating a new 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar note, in a bid to tackle the country's inflation, the highest in the world. The new note, issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from Wednesday, can buy 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar.
Food and fuel shortages have become common as the government relies more heavily on imports, pushing prices to new heights.
The official annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is nearing 5,000%.
In practice, this means the price of a loaf of bread costs 50 times more in cash than it did a year ago.
Shortages
The new note is worth US$13 at the official exchange rate or $1 on the black market.
Zimbabwe's government has created a commission to find a way to control soaring living costs.
But correspondents say that as long as Zimbabwe has a shortage of staple foods, including maize, food shortages are likely to continue.
Critics have blamed President Robert Mugabe's policies, especially the seizure of white-owned farms, for ordinary Zimbabweans' hardship.
For his part, President Mugabe has accused foreign governments of trying to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs.
The new banknote comes after International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that by the end of 2007, prices will be 1,000 times higher than they were a year earlier, Reuters news agency reports.
"Price controls that are being enforced are likely to exacerbate shortages and ultimately fuel further inflation," said Bio Tchane, director of the IMF's Africa department, who described Zimbabwe's prospects as "bleak".
Well, that’ll buy a pack of gum.
Duly noted.
This is the country Zimbabwe, in the southeast corner of Africa. Here an ordinary cup of drinking chocolate costs four million pounds, an immersion heater for the hot-water tank costs over six billion pounds, and a pair of split-crotch panties would be almost unobtainable. A simple rear window de-misting device for an 1100 costs eight thousand million billion pounds and a new element for an electric kettle like this would cost as much as the entire gross national product of the United States of America from 1770 to the year 2000, and even then they wouldn’t be able to afford the small fixing ring which attaches it to the kettle.
I mean, I knew the album was kinda rare.
Note to self
Shame they are not floating in crude oil or something. We would have 100,000 troops there because of the "inhumane conditions."
Those people have been starving since the beginning of time. Nothing grows in sand.....they need to be told that and stop breeding. What has that part of the world ever contributed to the rest of the world? They will be a burden on the world no matter what we do. We in this country have our plate full with what is going on in the world. Let the EU or the UN, without us, handle this one.
Why doesn’t Zimbabwe launch the, “Mugabe’s dead ass” Note?
It’s a race. The printing press against the rising prices. Who will win?
By Monday it will buy a couple sugar packets for your 1,000,000 Zimbabwe dollar cup of tea.
No they haven't. They starved, and then the evil British came along. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe became an economic powerhouse (relative to the rest of subsaharan Africa, anyway): its exports fed much of Africa.
And now Zimbabwe is returning to the dust. But, hey, at least they got a chance to stiff Whitey.
Rhodesia was an agricultural exporter and a very productive, self governing nation until Jimmy Carter 'saved' them. That, and Iran, are his two greatest accomplishments.
I don't even have an idea of where to start pointing out your stupidity.
Until 1990, Zimbabwe was "the bread basket of Africa", exporting millions of tons of food every year.
You say nothing grows in the sand, well guess what? There is no sand in Zimbabwe, only rich fertile soil that is an agrarian country's dream.
Only an ignorant fool would make such statements about Zimbabwe.
Wow, they must be like really rich! </public school mentality>
And vote in a "election" rigged by Jhummi Carter.
>> Those people have been starving since the beginning of time. Nothing grows in sand.....
Not quite true. Up until Mugabe started his ‘land reforms’, Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food. But then he ordered his supporters to rape and kill all the productive farmers, stole the land from any who managed to survive, and gave all the farmland to his cronies.
Zimbabwe’s troubles are the result of politics, not ecology.
God yes, Jimmy Carter. As darkly fallible as some kind of antimatter Pope from Zeta Minor. Everything he touches turns to death and darkness.
As the Simpsons would say, he’s History’s Greatest Monster!
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