Govt taskforce to examine empty shelves (28-06-07)

d government was setting up a taskforce to monitor prices of goods and services.
“The task force is being set up to monitor the prices (of goods) and their disappearance from the formal market,” Mpofu said. “It was approved by cabinet (last week) on Tuesday. We have realised that firms are hiking their prices almost everyday. The task force was set up in line with the signing of the prices and incomes stabilization protocol.”
The business community counters that companies are hiking prices because of steep production costs and the escalating cost of doing business. They also charge they are pushing the extra costs of expensive foreign currency obtained on the black market to the consumer.
Business executives say input costs were escalating steadily because of the combined forces of hyper-inflation (currently running at close to 4,500 percent) and the rising price of foreign exchange on the parallel market.
“There is nothing political about it (the increase in prices),” said an industrialist declining to be named. “Companies are having difficulties in raising forex to finance operations. The only way is to pass the cost to the consumer.”
Executives said there was a decline in production with accompanying losses of jobs and foreign exchange earnings.
The critical shortage of foreign currency has led to erratic fuel supplies, leading to long queues at petrol stations, while the occupation of some 4,000 white-owned commercial farms by landless peasants led by independence war veterans has disrupted agricultural exports, along with low tobacco prices.