Prices soar as currency reforms fail

ly everything since the currency reforms came into force. Three months ago a KFC burger cost $2,100.
On the black market, the value of the Zimbabwe dollar fluctuated wildly on Monday. By the afternoon, US$1 bought 1,500 Zimbabwe dollars compared to Friday’s 1,200.
“The rate is changing by the hour,” said one black market dealer on condition of anonymity. The official rate stands firm at 250 to 1.
Meanwhile, exasperated officials at the central bank are running out of local currency as black marketeers and money launderers withdraw massive amounts of bank notes to buy hard currency. The regulation to limit withdrawals to $100,000 has started being flouted by bribe-taking bank tellers for a “fee.”
Central bank officials said they would monitor large cash withdrawals from banks of more than $100,000 Zimbabwe dollars in a bid to trap “unscrupulous” dealers.
Unofficial trading has been spurred by a severe hard currency shortage stemming from political instability that has disrupted the main hard currency earning industries: tobacco, tourism and gold mining.
Independent economists say the black market exchange rate has been pushed up by desperate state enterprises seeking hard currency at unofficial rates to pay debts for oil, imported electricity and external fees and debts owed by the state airline. Many of those debts face foreclosure and the termination of supplies such as coal, seed, fertilizers and other services. – Own correspondent