Zimbabwe Collapsing

The annual inflation rate in Zimbabwe reached an unbelievable 7,251% with new figures finally released by the central bank. Prices in June alone rose by 86%. The government of Robert Mugabe had ceased publishing the inflation numbers, but international banking regulations forced them to finally divulge the extent of the trainwreck that is Zimbabwe's economy.

Prices in Zimbabwe rose 86 per cent during June, the second largest monthly increase in the country's history, taking annual inflation to 7,251 per cent from 4,530 per cent in May.

Zimbabwe suspended the monthly publication of inflation data in May, but because financial institutions and stock exchange-listed companies are required to publish inflation adjusted figures to comply with International Accounting Standards, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe released the inflation numbers to financial institutions this week.

The figures cover the period just prior to the introduction by President Robert Mugabe's government of controversial price controls, ordering businesses to cut prices by as much as 50 percent. They were imposed at the end of June in response to surging consumer prices in the second quarter of this year - when inflation reached 288 per cent over three months.

Mugabe's psychopathic price controls appear to have dropped the inflation rate for a time after June - but only by completely eliminating anything to buy on the market. There simply isn't anything in the stores. The government has just had to agree to price increases in virtually every sector. This is the man who got thunderous applause from other African leaders? For what, exactly? Destroying what was once the breadbasket of Africa?

Zimbabwe is collapsing.