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Price of tea soars in Zimbabwe
16/12/2004 12:30 - (SA)
Harare, Zimbabwe - The cost of tea in Zimbabwe rose by 28% amid soaring food prices in November, the independent Consumer Council said on Thursday.
Meat rose 15% and slightly lower increases were reported for milk, sugar and nonfood items such as rent, the council said in its monthly bulletin.
Overall, the average monthly expenditure for a low-income family of six to meet its basic needs rose by 11% to Z$1 647 855.
Lower paid workers earn around Z$750 000 a month - less than half the needs of the average family.
Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with unemployment running at 70%, according to official estimates.
The state Central Statistical Office on Tuesday said inflation last month hit 149.3%. While a drop from October's 209%, it is still the highest rate in the world.
Aid groups say many poor urban families have resorted to selling household goods, growing corn and vegetables on roadside patches, cutting back to a single meager meal a day and even begging and prostitution to get by.
The agriculture-based economy has collapsed since President Robert Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans in 2000, leading to acute shortages of food, fuel, hard currency and other imports.
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