WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2003-11-21 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 11/21/2003 5:58:31 AM
Zim Budget predicts inflation of 700%
[Note. The 700% inflation figure is predicted by the Zim Govt and they normally base it on many fixed and controlled prices. However, recently, economists said the real level of inflation there was currently 1,000% – when Govt figures were in the region of 500%(43)+. So I would guess, if the Govt is predicting 700% inflation for next year, that we’re really looking at maybe 1,400%. It was also announced in SA that the Zim economy was expected to shrink by 33% this year.
Mugabe blames all these economic problems on ficticious “British and American sanctions”. Funny isn’t it? Yet, most Zimbabweans believe this. The reality is, this is the result of running the white farmers off the land. Jan]
Zimbabwe’s finance minister on Thursday predicted the Southern African country’s economic crisis will deepen next year, with inflation hitting 700% and the economy continuing to shrink.
Presenting his 2004 Budget in Parliament, Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa admitted the country has gone through “severe economic hardships” this year and projected that the economy will contract by another 13,2% in the six weeks before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, a two-day strike called by the country’s main labour union over the deteriorating economic situation failed to take off, two days after police had quashed an attempt to stage anti-government protests around the Southern African nation.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had called for a mass job stayaway on Thursday and Friday in protest at the arrests of scores of labour and civic activists during the demonstrations earlier this week.
The two-day strike, called to coincide with the unveiling of the 2004 Budget, was also supposed to drive home the grievances of ordinary Zimbabweans, struggling to survive amid triple-digit inflation, rampant unemployment and critical shortages of essential commodities blamed on a severe foreign currency shortfall.
But the situation was normal in central Harare on Thursday with traffic as heavy as usual and long queues of people waiting outside banks to withdraw money from automatic teller machines.
There was no extraordinary police presence, but one resident of the Avenues suburb, which neighbours President Robert Mugabe’s official State House, reported a higher number of police patrols there.
Mugabe was in Parliament listening to the Budget proposals, which began with a preamble in which Murerwa described inflation as “our number-one enemy”.
Runaway inflation will need to be arrested and eventually reduced to a single digit through “rigorous” implementation of policies, Murerwa said.
Zimbabwe’s rate of inflation has more than doubled since the start of this year, climbing from 208% in January to nearly 526% last month.
Murerwa projected that inflation would continue to skyrocket, hitting 700% in the first quarter of 2004.
The government early this year said it aimed to reduce inflation to 96% by year’s end.
ZCTU spokesman Mlamleli Sibanda confirmed the call for a nationwide strike had gone unheeded on Thursday, but he said the union was still urging its members to down tools.
“We hope by the end of Thursday and on Friday things will have changed. The information is still circulating,” he said.
As the Budget was being presented, lawyer Andrew Makoni said police wanted to charge 49 rights activists and labour officials arrested during Tuesday’s protests under the country’s tough Public Order and Security Act for “going ahead with a prohibited demonstration”.
Among the group of protesters still in police custody were ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo; the group’s secretary general, Wellington Chibebe; and vice-president Lucia Matibenga.
Sibanda said in a statement that the arrested protesters were being denied access to their lawyers, who were “in the process of applying for an urgent aplication in the High Court for the leaders to appear in court today or be released without any charges”. — Sapa-AFP
Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=23843br>