On Tuesday, April 16, in Zimbabwe, bread prices almost doubled, which was another burden for citizens who are already struggling with a weakening currency and rising prices for basic goods.
Bread currently costs $ 3.50 RTGS per loaf, compared to Monday's $ 1.80, according to prices in most stores in Harare. Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009, after hyperinflation reached 500 billion percent the previous year.
In February, faced with an acute shortage of US dollars, Zimbabwe introduced a new currency called RTGS - Real-Time Gross Settlement System - a specialized system for transferring funds in which money or securities are transferred from one bank to any other bank on a gross basis.
Since then, RTGS has been losing value in Zimbabwe, forcing companies to raise prices. On Tuesday, April 16, the RTGS dollar was trading at 3.19 per dollar on the interbank market and $ 5 on the black market.
This means that a loaf of bread costs about 70 US cents in a country where the average income is about $ 4 a day. It should be noted that bread in Zimbabwe is the most consumed food after cornmeal.
