Harare – Dejection, hopelessness and desperation are written over the faces of the majority of Zimbabweans as they queue up for fuel and foodstuffs that have become scarce across the country amid fears that the country has started to slide back into the 2008 hyper-inflation era.
Even bitcoin rates, which some ordinary Zimbabweans have turned to as a storage of value, has started to soar on a local Zimbawean exchange Bitcoinfundi. It was up to $5,600 for a bitcoin versus $4080 per bitcoin on the Coinbase global index. The discrepancy is caused by the difficulty Zimbabweans will have in cashing out their bitcoins locally.
President Robert Mugabe on Monday (Sep.25) promised to deal with the current wave of foodstuff and fuel shortages in double quick time. He blamed “economic saboteurs” for the sudden worsening of the economic situation, ordering retailers to speedily reduce prices or face action from the government.
This has however brought little cheer to crisis weary Zimbabweans who are faced with further cuts to drug supplies, electricity and other commodities thanks to forex shortages despite the government asking platinum and chrome miners to surrender about three quarters of their forex earnings to the central bank.
Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum—the world’s biggest miners of the precious metal—will be affected by this although they are in negotiations with the government over this.
For the rest of this article: https://qz.com/1088620/bitcoin-soars-in-zimbabwe-as-economy-falters-and-investors-are-left-frustrated/