Zimbabwe’s shops are empty and prices are soaring

AT A SUPERMARKET in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, the finance minister is staring aghast at a pack of nappies. “This is absolutely ridiculous!”, exclaims Mthuli Ncube. “$49!” A manager says it cost $23 two weeks ago, before pointing out other eye-watering items such as $20 Coco Pops.

Escalating prices are all too familiar to Zimbabweans. So are shelves bereft of staples and snaking queues at petrol stations. “What we are facing now, we last faced in 2008,” says Arrison Banda, a driver waiting in line. A decade ago hyperinflation devastated Zimbabwe. The crisis this time is subtly different. But it too has the potential to shatter a fragile economy.