Govt To Enforce Price Controls

The government is set to reach out to manufacturers and retailers in a move meant to control prices of goods, which are spiralling out of control on the back of a sharp fall in the value of the local currency on the parallel market.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, in a post-Cabinet briefing on Wednesday, said the government will announce measures which will see the situation stabilising in due course. She said:

We will surely urge; we will surely reach out to industry or maybe this time to firm up so that we could control these prices.

So that they do not immediately react because that is what has been happening that they have been a reaction to the parallel rate when the parallel rate moves the retail sector prices also move.

The exchange rate at the parallel market was US$1:$60 via electronic transfers and US$1:$45 for cash transactions while the official rate is 1:25.

Last month the government and industry agreed that prices should revert to March 25 levels but instead, prices have continued to rise while salaries remain stagnant.

More: Chronicle