(Reuters) - The Zimbabwean government is ready to raise
civil servants’ wages for the second time in three months, Finance Minister
Mthuli Ncube said on Monday, after a labour group threatened protests.
Zimbabweans are angry as year-on-year inflation of around
100% has eroded the value of their wages and savings, recalling the horrors of
the hyperinflation era in 2008.
Currency reforms introduced last month to ban the use of
foreign currencies and make the interim RTGS currency the sole legal tender
have done little to instil confidence that people’s living standards will
improve soon.
“I have a (wage increase) figure already, and I am just
waiting to hear from the unions. We will be meeting them tomorrow to hear their
figures,” Ncube told a meeting with local businesses in Harare.
He said the southern African country’s central bank
wouldn’t hesitate to raise interest rates above their current level of 50% to
deal with people speculating on the value of the local currency.
Central bank Governor John Mangudya told the same event
that Zimbabwean individuals and companies held around $1 billion in
foreign-currency accounts, around three months’ import cover.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions threatened “mass
action” last month after the government made the RTGS the sole legal tender.
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