inflation - The African Mirror

Apr

2022

Nigeria’s women shopkeepers forced to scale back as prices soar

PELUMI SALAKO THE freezers at Mama Tee's frozen food shop used to be brimming with chicken, turkey cuts and the fish varieties popular with her mainly student clientele in the city of Ilorin in western Nigeria. Not so today. Inflation means Mama Tee's price-conscious customers are tightening their belts, forcing her to drastically reduce her stock and devastating the small business that she relies on to provide for her seven children. "The market is bad," she said, asking to be identified only by her nickname, as she sat on a bench outside her store's blue-painted frontage. "The price of things…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Sudan’s basic income scheme aims to ease economic pain

NEWS

NAFISA ELTAHIR and ELTAYEB SIDDING FOR Intisar Altayib, who ekes out a living drawing henna tattoos in Khartoum, soaring prices in Sudan mean running up tabs at local stores and cutting back on evening feasts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. She is one of millions struggling through an economic crisis that has deepened as Sudan tries to emerge from decades of isolation and conflict. Inflation has risen to more than 340% and there are shortages of everything from power to medicines. To ease the pain of reforms the government is introducing a donor-funded scheme that aims to provide…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Stagflation’ stalks Nigeria as food prices, unemployment soar

BUSINESS

CHIJIOKE OHUOCHA NIGERIAN inflation hit a four-year peak in February as food prices jumped more than 20%, heaping financial pressure on households already faced with a shrinking labour market and a stagnant economy at a time of mounting insecurity. Inflation, in double digits since 2016, reached 17.33%, driven by the impact of a coronavirus epidemic that has also induced a drop in the price of oil, Nigeria's main export, and weakened the naira currency. Tuesday's inflation reading was the highest since the 17.78% touched in February 2017. The economy was in a slump then and is teetering on the brink…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe expects inflation of 134% this year -finmin

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE expects its average annual inflation to slow to 134% in 2020, according to a finance ministry document, more than halving the central bank's previous forecast. The country is grappling with its worst economic crisis in more than a decade, with runaway inflation of 659.4% year-on-year in September, and severe shortages of foreign currency, food and medicine. The document, outlining Zimbabwe's strategy for the 2021 budget which is set to be delivered at the end of November, said the slowdown in inflation would be thanks to a deepening of the foreign currency auction market, which is expected to aid exchange…