johnnymk

http://allafrica.com/stories/200606200851.html

DIESEL and petrol prices have skyrocketed to between $400 000 and $600 000 a litre from $206 000 and $280 000 at a time when supplies of the commodities have dwindled.

The latest fuel price increases come barely a month after another round of increases was effected.

A survey carried by The Herald yesterday showed that most filling stations in Harare and its surrounding areas reviewed their fuel prices upwards last Friday.

Despite the increase in the price, the commodity was in short supply at most service stations with some fuel attendants professing ignorance on when they will receive their next deliveries.

There were long winding queues of cars at the few filling stations that had fuel, such as Ford Garage along Chiremba Road in Chadcombe.

Secretary for Energy and Power Development Mr Justin Mupamhanga yesterday said he was not aware of the latest fuel price increase.

"I am not aware that the price of fuel has increased. At the moment, I have no comment," he said.

Commenting on the latest fuel price increases, the Petroleum Marketers Association of Zimbabwe spokesperson and BP Shell corporate affairs secretary Mr Rodrick Kusano said it was difficult to tell what had triggered the latest price increase.

"It is very difficult to tell why the price of fuel has been increased as people are getting free funds and some from the Diaspora to import fuel.

"Individuals are importing the fuel. It is not the oil companies which are controlling fuel," he said.

The price of fuel surged about three weeks ago from between $175 000 and $200 000 a litre to between $206 000 and $280 000 for the same unit.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last month unveiled a US$50 million ($5,1 trillion at the prevailing exchange rate) revolving fuel import facility.

This followed an agreement signed between the central bank and French bank, BNP Paribas, and co-arranger of the facility, Loita Capital Partners International.

Under the facility, which will run for the next year on a revolving basis, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) will import fuel for both the private and public sectors.

Zimbabwe has been facing intermittent fuel shortages over the past six years owing to a foreign currency crunch caused by illegal sanctions imposed against the country by the West.

The country requires US$40 million for its monthly fuel requirements and the US$50 million facility is expected to go a long way in improving fuel availability due to its revolving nature.

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“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” (Winston Churchill)

cheapie

ha! not laughing at the poor people worrying about fuel but this is just another example of the terrible conditions mugabe has inflicted on his country.

maybe he shouldn't have killed/imprisoned/run off all the people that knew what they were doing.

rollhard

Right on man...Its sad....very sad.

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Eloy
'07 RPI 2.4GTS
Race Precision Inc.

Performance without Compromise

InfiniteNothing

Anyone want to go on a buisness trip with me? How hard is it to mail/send/transport large tanks of gasoline to Zimbabwe?

guiseppewv

Cannot be that hard. At ~US$4k/litre profit margin I am in.

smeakim

1 US Dollar = 101,374 Zimbabwe Dollar
1 Zimbabwe Dollar (ZWD) = 0.00000986 US Dollar (USD)

Well that is about $2.76 a litre or $8.28 a gallon. Yesh 9 bucks a gallon is high. Sorry to rain on your parade but its not US dollars.

cheapie

i was wondering how long it would be until someone took the bait.

fish on!!!!

blueindian

my mom is moving out of her apartment and into a friends house so she can send her rent money to friends in zimbabwe. when they go grocery shopping now, they take literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy food, and can still only eat one meal per day.

very sad situation.

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yeah, pretty much we missed the boat on that one. but it's still here. get you some.

Butch

I wonder if inflation has gotten to the point that they're using $500 bills as toilet paper?

http://www.gotapex.com/off-topic/992...-zimbabwe.html (Funny & Sad: How Bad Is Inflation In Zimbabwe?)

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I used to be into sadism, necrophilia and beastiality, but then I realized I was just beating a dead horse

guiseppewv

Doh. I miss calculated the conversion rate.


I somehow read billion instead of trillion when I was using the story to find the conversion rate. Doh.