Zim.price controls

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor has said price controls introduced by his boss, President Robert Mugabe were counter-productive.
 In a monetary statement review, RBZ governor Gideon Gono said the price controls which government introduced last June as a way of fighting the hyperinflation were contributing to the shortages of the basic commodities and affecting production of the goods.
 “They (price controls) must be used with extreme caution, otherwise they sink many basic goods and make them out of sight in the formal market and only appear in the parallel market where they will be out of reach of the majority of the people,” Gono said.
 “Price controls undermine economic activities. While I understand the social welfare responsibility of the government, there must be mutual trust between government and business.
 “There must a suitable formula (to replace price controls) and not to thumb sack prices that are sometimes wild and not related to cost of production. That will not make us move as a nation.”
 In the past Gono has clashed with the finance ministry for interfering in the fiscal policy. He said on Wednesday he would continue to interfere in ‘any area of the economy.’
 In the same statement Gono said there must be a ‘radical reforms’ in order for the country to get out of its economic quandary. “There is a need for decisive and bold actions on critical areas such as fuel, daily price increases, under utilised land and foreign currency,” said Gono.
He said he wanted the mining and agriculture industry to increase production tenfold for the economy to get back on track. The RBZ would be repossessing all farming implements that it gave to farmers who are not utilising them.