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Although she commended most retailers for maintaining fairly stable prices of basic commodities during the year, she said in the past, some had increased prices towards and during the festive season.
“We are going to be more vigilant to see if the retailers will increase prices of basic commodities in the early days and end of December.
“But as CCZ, we have noted that during the course of the year, retailers have behaved fairly well by maintaining price stability and this is commendable.
“We have so far compiled our mid-month basket. However, I am not in the office to give the figures but one thing for sure is that it increased largely because beef price has gone up.
“Prices for other basic commodities such as cooking oil, salt, and sugar and mealie-meal have actually remained fairly stable,” she said.
Ms Siyachitema attributed the stability to the price of fuel that has remained stable as well as the retailers taking heed of the CCZ’s call not to increase prices willy-nilly.
While the price of basic commodities has remained fairly stable, she however, said their main worries were the banks that do not seem to learn from past experiences to alleviate cash challenges especially during the festive season.
“During this festive season our major cause for concern are the banks; they experience cash shortages resulting in long winding queues at most financial institutions. The banks seem not to learn from past experiences.”
She urged the banking industry to ensure that its systems were up and running efficiently as well as improving liquidity supply to avoid inconveniencing consumers during the festive season.
“We know there are liquidity challenges in the country and banks know the periods for higher demand for cash.
“As long as they plan for it, consumers will not be inconvenienced of cash during the festive season,” she said, adding that the banking industry needed to adopt measures such as ensuring that the opening hours are a little bit longer.
Last month, CCZ said the cost of living for an urban low income family of six was $572,18.
Ms Siyachitema said the dry spell being experienced in the country had caused the price of beef to go up.
A survey carried out by this paper a fortnight ago revealed that beef prices in most butcheries had increased by more than 30 percent.
Online Reporter