‘There is doom and gloom for working families as regime fails’ – Biti

Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has castigated the Zanu-PF regime for failing to transform the Zimbabwean economy saying the “consumer basket for a family of six has risen to ZWL92 000 which is around US$300”.

Zimbabwe is undergoing an economic crisis that is mainly blamed on the government’s alleged mismanagement and corruption worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic which ravaged the whole world.

But the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim vice president believes Zanu-PF is responsible for running the economy down.

“The consumer basket for a family of six has risen to ZWL92 000 which is around US$300. In a country where 90% are in the informal sector there is doom and gloom for working families. The regime has failed and failed in absolute terms. Apologists of the same have no shame,” Biti said.

Leading economic research institute Morgan & Co, last week released an Economic and Market Intelligence Report which looked at the opportunities present in the Zimbabwean real estate space and compared them to the global landscape.

The organisation noted that the sector was experiencing difficulties similar to those of 2008 when Zimbabwe was going through a severe economic crisis.

“Reminiscent of the 2008 global financial housing market bubble, we are starting to see signs of similar worries arising in 2022 following bankruptcy fears triggered by Evergrande’s near default on interest bearing loans in late 2021,” read the report.

“The Chinese entity disclosed close to US$300 billion in liabilities and US$19 billion in dollar denominated debt with imminent coupon payments.

“Easily accessible funding through debt instruments allowed for unsupervised increases in debt balances and the inevitable default on these large borrowings.

“Globally, weary financial institutions are skeptical about funding real estate development through debt and this has caused an increase in real estate market prices across the globe as illustrated below.

“Furthermore, an article regarding rocketing housing costs by The Economist highlights that demand for real has increased and has been paired with supply-side pressures.

“Less support for real estate development creates a demand and supply imbalance that props up property prices,” the Morgan & Co report said.