Industrialists ignore price controls

By Lance Guma
08 September 2005

Statements by Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa that price controls were distorting the market have apparently been attributed to the fact that most industrialists were ignoring them anyway. An economic analyst who spoke to Newsreel says the government has not been able to successfully prosecute violators of the price controls and hence few were adhering to them. Only multi-national corporations were easily intimidated into implementing price controls while Zimbabwe based operations ignored them.

The government has been accused of pursuing politically motivated economic policies in an attempt to appease the general population but, as has happened, only succeeded in worsening the situation. On Wednesday it announced a doubling of fuel prices for the second time in two months. Analysts welcomed the admission by the finance minister and are hopeful it marks the beginning of a new era. Another analyst Eddie Cross believes the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe are just playing catch up with black market fuel prices and is not convinced it represents a significant policy shift.