Africa’s caricature Hitler hit again and this time straight to the point!!! Zimbabwe has something like 100,000% inflation and …guess what; Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has threatened to force businesses to cut prices ahead of the 29 March elections.
Prices have again shot up after Mr. Mugabe awarded huge pay rises to teachers and civil servants last month. "We are going to read the riot act to them [businesses]," he told a campaign rally in Hwange. The government last year ordered prices to be reduced, leading to widespread shortages. Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate is 100,000% - the worlds highest.
The state-owned Herald newspaper reports that Mr. Mugabe has ordered business leaders to attend a meeting with government officials. "We want them to reduce prices to those which were in effect before the salary hike," he said.
He said that anyone who refused to co-operate would be nationalized, through the new Indigenization and Empowerment Act, under which businesses are supposed to be majority-owned by black Zimbabweans. Mr. Mugabe says white-owned businesses are raising prices in order to reduce his chances of being re-elected.
The businesses say the official prices are below the cost of production. Some 12,000 people were arrested last year for selling goods at above the official prices if that is possible with 100,000% inflation!
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