Retail sale volumes have plummeted by about 40 per cent as a result of weakening consumer spending and hyperinflation.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president Denford Mutashu revealed that retailers were suffering a loss of business due to reduced sales. He said:
On buying groceries the high-value items or non-essential products have been affected because we have demand dropping by more than 50 per cent while on electrical gadgets it’s about 60 per cent.
On the basic commodities or non-essential commodities, demand is still going down by about 40 per cent.
The price of goods has been increasing exponentially over the past several months on the back of surging fuel prices and electricity tariffs.
The value of the local currency has also continued to drop to the current 1:16 from 1:2,5 in February on the interbank market.