Mozambique lost $3m due to riots
2010-09-03 22:30
Maputo - Mozambique's economy has lost more than $3m because of deadly riots over the rising prices of food and other goods, the government said on Friday, as state media reported new protests in two other towns.
Those losses include damaged property and lost production, state radio reported citing a government report. Computers, chairs and other equipment were looted from bank branches during riots, and loads of corn and cement were taken from railway cars.
Mozambicans have seen the price of a loaf of bread rise by about 25% in the past year - and fuel and water costs also have gone up. The increases have had a dramatic effect in the southern African nation where more than half the population lives in poverty.
Among those who have been hardest hit by the violence are the thousands of hawkers who make their living on the streets of the capital, said Antonio Fernando, the minister of trade and industry. Mozambique can only solve its economic woes if people are working, he said.
"These kinds of things can drive away foreign investors," Fernando said of the deadly riots.
No injuries
On Wednesday, protesters threw stones, burned tires and looted shops, and police opened fire on them. At least seven people were killed and scores wounded. Traffic was returning to normal on Friday, and it appeared few people were responding to calls for more protests.
State radio and TV reported police scattered protesters in two provincial towns on Friday. There were no reports of injuries.
The Mozambique Workers Organisation, the country's largest trade union federation, has called for workers to be allowed to get back to their factories and offices.
In a statement on Friday, the federation condemned the vandalism and violence that accompanied the strike, and said dialogue was the only way to resolve concerns about high prices.
The government, which sets the price of bread, fuel and water has said that it will remain firm on the higher prices. It has said keeping food prices low is difficult because so much of the country's food has to be imported: Mozambique grows only 30% of the wheat it needs.
Strong macroeconomic policies
Civil war consumed Mozambique for 17 years after independence from Portugal in 1975. That devastation has slowed progress in agricultural development, said Franck Black, an expert on Mozambique with the African Development Bank.
From 1994 to 2006, Mozambique saw annual GDP growth of about 8%, fuelled largely by foreign interest in its raw and hydroelectric resources and growing confidence war would not return.
Little of the new wealth, though, has trickled down to the impoverished majority.
Black said he was confident the government wanted the wealth spread more equitably, and said its macroeconomic policies were strong.
"The trickle down does take some time," he said.
- AP