Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Some retailers are reportedly charging more than the maximum limit of 10 percent on the official rate when selling their products.
This is in violation of a directive by the RBZ’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
A quick survey conducted by Business Times this week showed that most retailers, including pharmacies, continue to charge for goods at a rate between ZWL$6500:US$1 and ZWL$7000:US$1.
Some retailers reportedly use higher rates of up to ZWL$7500:US$1.
Executive director of the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), Rosemary Mpofu, condemned the overpricing of products by shops. She said:
CCZ is still concerned that there are some supermarkets that are charging rates that are above stipulated rates by the monetary authorities.
This is letting us down as consumers are buying very few things from their salaries.
Previously some business operators were indexing their prices to the parallel market exchange rate using speculative pricing and forward pricing to hedge against inflation.
Though that behaviour was not rampant during the month of August indicating some conformity in the market, there were some retailers who continued to charge exorbitantly.
The prices of most products in the basket went down and this is attributed to the strengthening and stability of the local currency which was maintained during the month of August.
Worryingly, some retailers continue to increase prices.
However, the Retail Association of Zimbabwe (RAZ) said that formal retailers are complying with the FIU directive. It said:
Those that are in question are not your usual retailers but they are community-registered formal retailers which are not our members.
For our members, we have a policy that they should not use another rate but with a 10% markup.
The government promulgated Statutory Instrument (SI) 118 of 2022, which regulates Zimbabwe dollar pricing to a maximum limit of 10 percent of the interbank rate.
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