Zim: Consumers remain stuck with high prices

12 Mar 2009

Food prices dropped marginally in February, but the utility tariffs and transport costs kept the urbanites mired in poverty, a consumer watchdog has said.

The cost of living for a family of six climbed down slightly from US$381.23 in January to US$374.25 in February, against average salaries of around US$150 per month, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) revealed.

Food prices in the CCZ basket of basics dropped 20%, but this did very little to offset high charges on electricity and water as well as transport, health service and education costs among other things. The non-food items comprised of US$239 of the basket, against US$214 in January.

And while commodities were now abundant in retail outlets, CCZ said very few consumers afforded them because the majority of workers were still being paid in Zimbabwe dollars.

Almost all prices, including those charged by government utilities, are now in foreign currency despite the fact that the Zimbabwe dollar is still the country's legal tender under the recently dollarised economy.

Civil servants were last month paid using foreign currency vouchers amounting to US$100 per worker but their primary income remains pegged in Zimbabwe dollars.

Most people no longer bother to withdraw the Zimbabwe dollar incomes because the currency is now out of use.