Captains of the industry have responded to ED after he said businesses increasing prices are being inhumane, unethical and unpatriotic. In his independence speech, ED called out retailers to stop profiteering at the expense of the masses of Zimbabwe a move that was seen by many business people as unrealistic.
Speaking to NewZimbabwe CZI President Sifelani Jabangwe said
What just needs to be understood is that prices are a reflection of deeper market structures and our country’s terrain was relatively stable until the time government began to make new pronouncements.
“This can be testified by the fact that from January to September 2018 business managed to maintain consistency in pricing up until October 2018, when a new monetary policy which separated RTGS dollar bank accounts from Foreign Currency Accounts was announced.
Another Business Leader Denford Mutashu said;
It’s fallacious and it comes from those who choose to ignore the reality. As retailers we are just price takers.
“The bulk of retailers have maintained their markups until recently when there was an increase in producer prices of wheat and grain which meant that input costs had to adjust along the value chain,
More: AllAfricanNews
Price increases for some businesses are not realistic. Salaries, electricity, fuel and other utilities are not following the black forex market. It makes sense to effect increases on the component of cost which has a forex component. Given the business attitude, competition from imports must be allowed, in fact full liberalization. Once that is implemented the same profiteering businesses will start to cry foul. Realistic price adjustments makes sense not this nonsense where black market forex rates are being used a scapegoat.