Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has said prices of goods and services are set to go down because there is competition in locally manufactured goods now, The Sunday News reports.
The fundi was addressing a meeting of the Bulawayo business community when he said:
Inflation has hit us hard but prices are stable and they are set to go down again soon as there is competition now in locally manufactured goods. Business can now plan for the future as prices of goods and services will be stable.
Mthuli Ncube claimed that locally manufactured goods have replaced common imports in stores especially in the food industry:
Locally manufactured goods have also started to penetrate the local market more than before. If you go into shops you can see that there is import substitution. Companies are beginning to make especially food products locally as against importing. We applaud that because there is job creation for the youths and shows growth of the business sector owing to the stability of the currency and we are now more competitive against imports
According to the Minister of Finance and Economic department, companies have started exporting their goods to regional and international markets:
Companies have also started selling their goods outside the country and that is growth showing that we are exporting more and that is a positive move. If this had been the other way around, we would have been exporting jobs in a way. As a Government we are noticing that the economy is going in the right direction and we have to maintain that moving forward.
Meanwhile, despite Mthuli Ncube’s positive projection, inflation is still above 600% and civil servants are still incapacitated as teachers have refused to go back to work since 28 September due to incapacitation.
More: The Sunday News