President Emmerson Mnangagwa has expressed government concern over price hikes of basic commodities in the country saying his office has already called for an engagement meeting with manufacturers and retailers to find an amicable solution.
Mnangagwa, who revealed that he met with Industry, Commerce and Enterprise development Minister, Mike Bimha over the issue, spoke against price control saying this will be unfair to manufacturers, calling for a road-map to stop the unnecessary hiking of prices.
“We are very concerned as government with the general increases of commodities on the market. I have since talked with the Minister (Bimha) to call for an engagement meeting with retailers, manufacturers and wholesale and discuss the way forward.
“We don’t think it will be good to enforce a legislation that will force the prices of commodities to go down. We need to come to an understanding and have people in these categories to understand where we are coming from.
“They (retailers, manufacturers and retailers ) should desist from profiteering because you find in some instances ,one product differs in rice from the shop next door. That is not right,” said Mnangagwa.
He called for a thorough interrogation of the whole situation to find out causes of price hikes especially of basic commodities which he said are rising at will.
Significant price increases on basic commodities such as meat, bread and other items have been noted throughout the country.
A survey by the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (Zimstats) revealed that households are paying more for meat, liquid fuels and other goods.
The survey further noted that inflationary pressures are largely driven by the parallel market exchange rate which at some point reached as high as $1.90 per dollar.
In an interview with 263Chat soon after Mnangagwa’s State Of Nation Address last week, Denford Mutashu, Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president said the price increases were purely out of greed and unjustified.
He called on government to deal with the scourge as it was also fueling corruption in the country.
