Jul

18

Mugabe's price cuts bring cheap TVs today, new crisis tomorrow


Chris McGreal in Harare Monday July 16, 2007

Zimbabweans are shopping like there's no tomorrow. With police patrolling the aisles of Harare's electrical shops to enforce massive government-ordered price cuts, the widescreen TVs were the first things to go, for as little as GBP20. Across the country, shoes, clothes, toiletries and different kinds of food were all swept from the shelves as a nation with the world's fastest shrinking economy gorged itself on one last spending spree.

President Robert Mugabe's order that all shop prices be cut by at least half, and sometimes several times more, has forced stores to open to hordes of customers waving thick blocks of money given new value by the price cuts. The police and groups of ruling party supporters could be seen leading the charge for a bargain.


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