The Zimbabwean government has accused local businesses of driving inflation through unjustified price increases.
Speaking in a recent interview with ZBC News, Finance and Economic Development Secretary George Guvamatanga said Zimbabwe has been experiencing “greedflation”, rather than inflation over the past several months.
He accused the business sector of greediness, which has resulted in rising inflation. Said Guvamatanga:
What we witnessed over the course of the past two months was not inflation as we know it in economic terms, but rather “greedflation” which is really fuelled by greediness from the corporate sector where their forward-pricing practices resulted in the fast escalation of prices in the shops without any justification.
So Government had to intervene to take the necessary measures to ensure that there is stability in the market.
But of concern too though, is that we still continue to see some sections of the corporate sector, be it the manufacturing sector, as well as the retail sector who are still pricing their goods using prices that are not in line with the current exchange rate.
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rose to 176% in June from 87% a month earlier after the government partially liberalised the exchange rate.
The Zimbabwe dollar, which has been in free-fall in May and June, has been regaining ground against the US dollar on the official forex auction over the past few weeks.
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