In this time of economic recovery from more than a decade of economic meltdown, Zimbabweans need to become more aware of not just how they spend their money, but WHERE they spend it.
It is really not a normal situation that 60 percent of our retail shelves are occupied by foreign products. What buying foreign products means is that we are supporting the economies of other countries at the expense of our own.
Buying Zimbabwean products, even if they cost a bit more, keep your hard-earned money at home, which improves our national economy. We have a long economic recovery road ahead of us.
What consumers should know is that buying foreign products results in our manufacturing sector shrinking, due to low domestic demand. As the sector declines, future generations will be unable to find jobs. Buying local products can help your friends and relatives and even yourself to earn a living wage and a sustainable standard of life.
If we use the money we earn from our employers to buy foreign products, the employer will end up having no money to keep you employed. When we buy local, we are paying back the employer, so that he can keep producing and keep employing.
Buying foreign products is the same as exporting jobs abroad, leaving us not only unemployed but becoming an extended supermarket for other countries.
Our huge perennial trade deficits are the result of our strong appetite for foreign products. For the first four months of this year, it was already circa $2 billion dollars. Imagine how many jobs would have been created had that $2 billion been kept in our economy!
Since the trade deficit has to be financed, it means that the country has to borrow. Further, due to the local liquidity shortages, it entails borrowing from abroad, where we currently cannot get concessionary debts due to our bad credit rating. That borrowing will further increase our already high national debt. High national debt, which is currently at 80 percent of GDP, distorts our macroeconomic environment and restricts us from getting more funding for our productive sectors to thrive.
The price of Zimbabwean products is relatively high, compared to foreign products, but the total cost of consuming them is substantially lower. The price of a foreign product, which may contain GM products, is cheaper but the total cost of consuming it is very very high. It might cost your health or even your life, ultimately!
Everybody is complaining about the bad economy, without actually realising that every day we get into a shop we make an important decision about the future of the economy. It is you folks who have the power to decide whether to destroy or revive your economy. You make that good choice when you buy Zimbabwean products.
Post published in: Business