The price of bread almost doubled for Zimbabweans last week, as the inflation nightmare that marked the rule of long-time authoritarian leader, Robert Mugabe, returns to haunt his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
There have been warnings of the mental and physical toll the rampant price increases will have on Zimbabweans after the cost of a loaf of bread basically doubled to three and a half dollars, and a tub of butter shot up to $17 from eight fifty.
Mnangagwa pledged to revive his country’s moribund economy when Mugabe was toppled in 2017 after 37 years in power.
But after the central bank unveiled a new monetary policy in February, introducing a new local currency, prices of goods and services have skyrocketed at rates unseen in a decade.
The disparity between the official and parallel market exchange rates has been rapidly widening, triggering price hikes of up to 300 percent.
The chief of the Zimbabweauthoritarian leader, Robert Mugabe, says he is angry at the government for “putting on a brave face and giving the impression that the economy is on a rebound, but on the ground things are going in the opposite direction.”
The crisis has brought back memories of a decade ago when hyperinflation peaked at a grotesque 500 billion percent, wiping out the Zimbabwean dollar.
