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| Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube gestures during a media briefing in Harare, Zimbabwe, October 5, 2018. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo |
The Zimbabwean government is ready to raise civil servants’ wages for the second time in three months, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Monday, after a labour group threatened protests.
Zimbabweans are angry as year-on-year inflation of around 100% has eroded the value of their wages and savings, recalling the horrors of the hyperinflation era in 2008.
Currency reforms introduced last month to ban the use of foreign currencies and make the interim RTGS currency the sole legal tender have done little to instil confidence that people’s living standards will improve soon.
“I have a (wage increase) figure already, and I am just waiting to hear from the unions. We will be meeting them tomorrow to hear their figures,” Ncube told a meeting with local businesses in Harare.
He said the southern African country’s central bank wouldn’t hesitate to raise interest rates above their current level of 50% to deal with people speculating on the value of the local currency.
Central bank Governor John Mangudya told the same event that Zimbabwean individuals and companies held around $1 billion in foreign-currency accounts, around three months’ import cover.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions threatened “mass action” last month after the government made the RTGS the sole legal tender.
REUTERS
