Discipline now needed to keep prices stable as Zimbabwe has US$1.9 billion in banks

HON. DR. KHUPE: The Minister spoke about indiscipline which is causing prices to increase every day.  The fact of the matter is that prices are increasing, so what is the Ministry doing to make sure that they monitor so that prices do not increase.  I think the Ministry can simply do that.  They must monitor to see whether prices are not increasing, looking at the fact that we have got a stable exchange rate.  What is the Ministry doing to monitor and ensure that prices do not increase on a daily basis?  He spoke about stability but there is no stability and indiscipline is still going on.  They must monitor to make sure that this indiscipline stops and prices do not increase because people are suffering.  Even if the Ministry increases salaries by 50%, it will be eroded by price increases.

THE HON. SPEAKER:  Hon. Member, you are now debating.  Can you please allow the Hon. Minister to respond?

HON. PROF. MURWIRA:   I thank Hon. Dr. Khupe for her supplementary question which is re-emphasising the importance of a country that respects itself.  These prices are being charged by Zimbabweans who also go and participate in the auction system which is very open and is being conducted according to market forces.  Basically, within our national collective effort, discipline is very important so that what affects us must be of a nature which shows that we care for each other.  The issue here is that the Ministry is in the process of making sure that the way the money is supplied to the market in terms of foreign currency has actually stabilised and increased production.  Utilisation is around 96% on average which shows that the rest – let me give a small example in order to illustrate the point.  In fighting a long war for economic development, there are those who fight very small battles and spend their energy on small battles which might be the careless business people.  There are those who fight the infinite war which is a bigger strategy. I am sure those who are fighting the infinite war will win because on average the Zimbabwean economy is stabilising and going up. The rest can be little battles but they will ease out because as we speak, the amount of foreign currency supply in this country is at its highest since 1980. So, basically these are small curves on a rising curve. I thank you.

THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Minister, while you are upstanding. The kernel of the question is monitoring. What measures are you putting in place to monitor the price increases? That is the kernel of the question.

HON. PROF. MURWIRA: Hon. Speaker, we have the Consumer Council and Competitions and Tariffs Commission in this country. These are policy instruments or legal instrument or entities that are monitoring prices every day. So in terms of Government, it is very clear. What we were addressing now Hon. Speaker, is the issue of saying now that the policy is there and the monitoring is happening, the only thing we can be looking at as an explanatory variable is the discipline. I thank you.

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