Cost of living goes down

Business Reporter
THE cost of living as measured by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe’s low-income urban earner’s monthly basket for a family of six decreased by 0,6 percent to US$561,32 by the end of July from the June figure of US$564,73. According to CCZ, the food basket decreased by US$3,49 from US$153,08 in June to US$149,59 in period under review.
The council said the fluctuations in the food basket could be attributed to the ongoing promotions in various supermarkets and the volatility of the South African rand.

The rand’s slide over the past several months from 8,46 to the dollar in January to 10 rand to a dollar this month was sparked by concern of labour disruptions and a decline in commodity prices amid concerns that this would keep slowing growth in Africa’s biggest economy.
This could also have an impact on Zimbabwe as most of the country’s imports are from Down South.

CCZ said in the month of July, detergents increased by US8c from US$12,65 to US$12,73.
The price of tea leaves increased by US24c from US$1,65 in June to US$1,89 while tomatoes went up US10c from US65c to US75c.

A head of cabbage now costs US55c up from US50c in June. The price of a 2kg packet of white sugar increased by US4c from US$1,95 to US$1,99 and laundry bars by US4c from US$1,25 to US$1,29.

Decreases were recorded in the prices of beef which went down by US40c from US$4,30 to US$3,90 in the period under review.
Flour shed US11c from US$1,99 to US$1,88 while 2kg of rice went down US11c from US$1,85 in June to US$1,74.

Margarine decreased by US19c from US$2,42 to US$2,23 while a 20kg of mealie-meal went down US16c from US$11,86 to US$11,70.
Fine salt and cooking oil slightly decreased by US2c and US1c respectively to end the month of July at US18c and US$1,78.
A kilogramme of onions went down US20c from US$1,39 to US$1,19.

The cost of the CCZ basket for transport, rent, water and electricity, health, education, clothing and footwear remained unchanged at US$399.
In a separate statement, CCZ commended the Government and the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe for addressing the issue of the licensing of Telecel Zimbabwe.

Telecel’s licence was renewed on Tuesday after the country’s second largest mobile operator made a commitment to comply with the requirement to have a local majority shareholder.

“The CCZ hopes that the licensing of Telecel Zimbabwe translates into immediate restoration of interconnection services to Telecel Zimbabwe and marks an end to a raging dispute between the two rival mobile companies, which has in the past few weeks, inflicted irreparable damage to hapless consumers,” the council said.
Last month, Econet Wireless suspended interconnection with Telecel citing that its new licence did not allow it to interconnect with an unregistered operator.