Government orders price controls on basic commodities

The Zimbabwean government, faced with increasing poverty and a deteriorating economy, has ordered price controls on basic commodities to ease hardship, the state-run 'Herald' newspaper said on Wednesday. Manufacturers and retailers have been ordered to revert to prices used in August this year, the paper said, saying the order was issued by Industry and International Trade Minister Herbert Murerwa.

The price controls cover a number of basic commodities, including bread, the staple maize meal, sugar, cooking oil, beef, chicken and pork, the paper reported. A loaf of bread, the price of which has already been increased eight times this year, will now revert to its August price of 34.43 Zimbabwe dollars (62 US cents) from around 50 Zimbabwe dollars (90 US cents).
The paper reported that the government would issue a statutory instrument on Wednesday gazetting the prices of the selected consumer items, which analysts believe marks a return to the country's command-style economy of the 1980s.

The price controls come at a time when veterans of the country's war of liberation from colonial Britain have threatened to demonstrate against soaring prices of basic commodities. They blame the increases on white-owned businesses attempting to tarnish the government's reputation, but economic analysts say it is because manufacturers have to purchase scarce foreign currency for inputs on a thriving parallel market.