Zimbabwe bankrupt: The facts - Page 3

Pietro · #21 3rd February 2008, 08:22 PM

Now see how they lie!! Look through the reports and NAMPOWER said they were already receiving power from that ruin. NOW they say"as early as Feb". They didn't say what year, did they???????????

Paulinus! Your nickname should be Pinocchio, mr Lie-lamba!!!

Pietro · #22 9th March 2008, 07:47 AM

Now they dish out Chinatoy tractors!!!!!! Why not before they became all rusted????????????????

Oneword · #23 17th May 2008, 04:29 AM

YEAR on year inflation for the month of March surged to 355 000% from the February figure of 165 000% as prices rose on the back of increased money supply to finance the 2008 harmonised elections.

Top government sources said the inflation figures for March had initially been projected at 406 000%, but were still being computed as the Central Statistical Office (CSO) continues to fiddle with the consumer basket.

"The CSO were instructed last month to change the consumer basket. The basket is forever changing." said one Ministry of Finance official. "It remains uncertain whether the go ahead will be given to them to release the figures."

Food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to be the major drivers of inflation in March.

The CSO acting director, Moffat Nyoni, confirmed that the CSO had been having difficulty in coming up with a stable consumer basket.

Nyoni said the CSO had not computed substantive inflation data for the months of February, March and April owing to these challenges.

However, the CSO projection, sources said, has placed inflation for May at over 1 200 000% if the trend continues.

Nyoni would not confirm these developments.

"I am not aware of that. We have not even computed inflation for these past months," he said.

The figures come at a time the RBZ has introduced higher denomination bearer cheques notes to counter the adverse effects of inflation.

The CSO last released inflation figures in January when the year-on-year rate was 100 580,2%. Prior to that, the year on year inflation rate for December was 66 212,3%.By Kuda Chikwanda

Pietro · #24 17th May 2008, 08:27 PM

Something for juicy!!

How to meet a trillionaire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comrade_007 · #25 18th May 2008, 10:53 AM

The elite is not bothered with inflation. There are a couple of thousand ZANU-PF peeps who benefit handsomely from the black market and this hyperinflationary environment and who are now making sure tey stay in power, whatever it takes. They control the black currency market and have monopolised the few remaining parts of the formal economy. Let us not think that inflation itself iwill bring down Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Inflation is a figure on paper. Bullets are in guns. Bullets kill faster than inflation or words.

Oneword · #26 18th May 2008, 03:40 PM

Only one exception: They don't have money - only the valueless kind; BUT THEY DO HAVE BULLETS! - thanks to the Chinese ......

Pietro · #27 19th May 2008, 08:26 PM

Hidden in one of the lesser paragraphs by the Zim Herald is the fact that the RBZ has issued "cheques" for use by the agricultural sector worth 50 BILLION Z$!!!!

Since the normal currency also consists of cheques (the bearer kind!), the highest denomination "bill" in Zim is NOT 500 million, but 50 billion!!!!!!!!!!!

Oneword · #28 6th June 2008, 07:06 AM

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's currency plunged to a new record low on
Thursday, trading at an average 1 billion to the U.S. dollar on a recently
introduced interbank market and triggering massive price increases.

Traders were quoting the Zimbabwean dollar at between 995 million to 1.45
billion against the U.S dollar in Thursday morning trade.

The currency has depreciated by about 84 percent since the central bank
effectively floated it in early May, after years of an official peg.

Analysts say the rapid weakening of the currency was being driven by
inflation expectations as well as huge demand for hard currencies.

From Zimbabwe Independent

Quote:

The four markets are the Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR), the official interbank, the cash parallel market and Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS).
The OMIR rate closed Tuesday at $1 746 899 809 after having opened trading at Monday’s rate of $967 480 942.
The OMIR rate is used by some companies to do business transactions and track the true value of the Zimbabwean dollar.
The rate surged even further on Wednesday when it rose to an unprecedented high of $3,9 billion before registering a slight decline to close at $3 047 030 834 last night. It is expected to surge next week.
The official interbank rate surpassed a billion dollars yesterday with most banks trading slightly above the mark. ABC Bank was trading at $1,1 billion for the US dollar while ZABG and Standard Chartered were just over $1 billion.
A handful of banks were trading at slightly below the $1 billion mark by midday yesterday but were poised to exceed the barrier by close of day.
Kingdom Bank was buying the greenback at $995 million and selling at $1 099 000 000 while Stanbic was buying at $990 million and selling at $992 million.
The two thriving parallel markets could not be matched by the interbank system and still held its lead throughout the week.
On the cash parallel market, dealers were buying the US dollar at rates between $1,1 billion and $1,2 billion yesterday.
Parallel market dealers on the RTGS market were buying the US dollar at $1,8 billion yesterday.
The RTGS rate for Tuesday was $1,2 billion before rising to Wednesday’s rate of $1,6 billion.

Oneword · #29 6th June 2008, 07:48 AM

All too often we read and hear that the Zim $ has reached a new low, but nobody really knows how it started sliding before falling to plumb depths unknown. The Zimbabwe Independent has a review from 2003 when Gideon Gono took over as governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. I thought it expeditious to share this with our Shebeeners. It is good to hear about things; it is better to know they came about:

Quote:

So many foreign exchange policies have been tried but all of them have failed. Some have been withdrawn before they could be implemented. To track this policy changes one has to look a governor Gideon Gono’s tenure in office since December 2003.

His tenure at the central bank has been characterised by uncertainty on the foreign currency market.

With each monetary policy, the market has come to expect a raft of new foreign currency policies. Gono set up semi-weekly RBZ-controlled auctions soon after assuming office.

These auctions, he said, would determine the official exchange rate which had been pegged at $824 to the US dollar in February 2003. The rate quickly moved to $4 196 to the greenback on January 12 to end the year at $5 730 to the US dollar through the auctions, slightly trailing the parallel market which ended the year at $6 000 for the US dollar.

The year 2005 was to be an entirely different year as the Zimbabwe dollar would tumble heavily against major currencies. The rate moved to $6 200 in March and then $9 000 for the US dollar in May. The parallel market surged to $14 000 and then to $20 000 against the US dollar in respective periods. In the same year, Gono devalued the dollar to $10 800 to the greenback on July 18.

He then changed it to $17 600 on July 25, before pushing it down to $24 500 on August 25. The dollar was to be devalued three more times in 2005, starting in September when it moved to $26 003, to $60 000 in November and finally to $84 588 in December.

That did not seem to work as the parallel market continued to race ahead. On July 18 it was $25 000, then $45 000 on August 25, $75 000 in September, $90 000 in November and closing the year at $96 000 in December.

Gono then discontinued the RBZ currency auctions in November 2005 and announced that market factors would determine the exchange rate.

Gono at that time said there were some players who were abusing and tinkering with the auction floor systems. But even he had to accept that the auctions had been quite successful, despite removing them.

The foreign currency generated in the first quarter of 2004 using the auction system surpassed the total inflows registered in 2003. Over US$192,9 million was raised through the first quarter auctions.

On January 3, 2006, the dollar was again devalued to $85 158: US$1. It moved to $99 201,58 on January 24 and then to $101 195,54 on April 28 where it was to stay until July 31.

The parallel market continued to gallop to reach $550 000 on July 27. After the revaluation exercise on August 1, 2006, in which three zeros were lopped off the dollar, the exchange rate was moved to $250 to the US dollar where it was to stay until August 2007.

However, a special rate of $15 000 was applied for miners, farmers, NGOs, embassies and Zimbabweans living abroad. Meanwhile the parallel market continued to race further ahead of the official market.

It rose from $550 to the US dollar on August 1, 2006 to $1 500 on October 12. It then shot up to $3 200 on January 11, 2007 and on April 1, it stood at $30 000. But it was not until June 2007 that the real madness began on the parallel market, coinciding with government’s price blitz. On June 3 US$1 was worth $55 000. Twenty days later, it took $400 000 to buy the greenback.

The dollar was devalued again in September 2007 to $30 000 against the US dollar. On April 30 Gono decided to do what the market had been advising him for four years and let the dollar float.

Thrilled at the prospect of eliminating the parallel market, Gono’s optimism was unfettered.

"Given the centrality of foreign exchange in the economy," Gono said, "its pricing has to take into account the need to incentivise all its generators to remain viable, whilst at the same time minimizing the intended adverse consequences on the vulnerable segments of society."
He introduced the Priority Focused Foreign Currency Twinning Arrangement, which allowed the exchange rate to float at market forces.

The interbank rate started on a high, eclipsing the parallel market in the first week as it paid between $165 million and $185 million against parallel market dealer rates of $120 million for the US dollar.

For the first time since Gono removed the auction system, it appeared the public’s confidence in the official system was slowly returning. Then the tables started turning. The parallel market is back on top. There are now fears that Gono might change policies again. Gono did not mention a time frame for how long the current situation would prevail. He simply said the pricing framework would respond to "contemporary developments" in the economy. Six weeks later, the interbank rate is now $1 billion while the parallel market was paying $1,1 billion for the US dollar.

There are no signs of the rate stabilising and economists contend that the rate could very well be above $2 billion by June 27. Now the question on everyone’s mind is whether Gono’s move to liberalise the exchange rate wasn’t "too little, too late".

Zimbabwe Independent/own

Oneword · #30 9th June 2008, 04:47 PM

Something I picked up from the Herald this morning. Are they really going to charge only 4,5% interest on arrears when inflation stands at anything above 1,7 mill%?

Quote:

Govt announces new fees for bulk raw water

GOVERNMENT has announced new fees and a cocktail of regulations governing the abstraction of bulk raw water by different users including irrigation farmers with effect from March 1, 2008.

"In respect of direct abstraction of water by a permit holder or an agreement holder, shall be $98 million per megalitre of water permitted to be abstracted under the permit or water allocated to the agreement holder per quarter," reads part of the amendment.

Under the amendments to the Water Permits regulations application for a surface water permit has been set at $800 million while application for rights to conduct operations which would interfere with the bed of a public stream or any swamps is now $600 million.

Application for amendment of permit, renewal of permit, extension of temporary or provisional permit and general permit is $660 million per category.

....bills should be paid within 30 days failing which the overdue amount would attract an interest of 4,5 percent.

View Poll Results: Do you believe Zimbabwe is bankrupt?
Yes, it is	123	75.00%
No, it is not	16	9.76%
I'm not sure	25	15.24%
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