According to the authoritative First Merchant Bank, the tightness in the money markets reflects the fact, not that there is too little money in the system, but that too great a proportion of it is going to the wrong place.
It says the cost of the government is $12.9 billion or about $35 million a day. About 85 percent of this figure, more than $900 million a month is raised through taxes. The rest has to be borrowed.
Manufacturing was badly hit by the power shortages, also the worst in the country’s history. Worse still most of the manufactured products like furniture, clothing, and footwear are now too expensive even for the high income group. Mining has too been declining.
On the political front, there was almost deadlock with even new parties that were supposed to take off failing to. The long-awaited cabinet reshuffle came a little too late and despite promises of reducing the size of the cabinet, all those who had been axed ended up being given other posts. In effect, the only posts that seem to have been completely abolished were those of some deputy ministers.
Opposition parties fizzled out and despite announcements of the formation of the so-called United Front, nothing has materialised. The same seems to be the case with young parties like the Zimbabwe Unity Movement and Democratic Party. Apart from being allowed to waffle once in a while they did not have any significant impact.
The creation of another daily newspaper, which was meant to improve competition, came and now seems to be hardly noticed. While the arrival of the newspaper seems to have improved the quality of reporting by the already existing papers, the new paper seems to have failed to put its feet down tittering between western tabloids and the more serious ones.
The media, however, seems to have taken one bolder step. This was largely on the reporting of corruption by the most senior government officials. The tendency had all along been to deal with the small fry.
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