Zimbabwe imports 200,000 tonnes of Tanzania maize

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe is importing 200,000 tonnes of maize from Tanzania as it battles food shortages which critics largely blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies, state television said on Wednesday.

Critics say Mugabe plunged the southern African state into economic crisis by seizing productive white-owned commercial farms and giving them to inexperienced black farmers who have left the country needing to import food since 2000.


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Zimbabwe scraps fuel scheme as crisis deepens

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe has scrapped a scheme allowing fuel purchases with foreign currency, removing one of the few remaining ways for people to acquire petrol in a country struggling with a crumbling economy.

The facility is also used by foreign diplomats and officials working for international aid organisations.


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Mboweni:Zimbabwe far from joining rand union - report

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe is a long way from being ready to join southern Africa's rand monetary union, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni was quoted as saying on Monday.

"A very high degree of macro-economic convergence is necessary. They have a very long way to go," he told South African news agency I-Net Bridge.


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Implats' Zimbabwe unit appoints new CEO

(Reuters) - The Zimbabwe unit of South Africa's Implats has appointed Alex Mhembere as its new chief executive effective in October, the firm said on Thursday.

Zimplats Holdings Ltd is majority-owned by Implats, the world's second-biggest platinum producer, and the firm has major growth plans for the unit.


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Zimbabwe reviews inflation calculation, delays data

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe is reviewing how it calculates inflation and will delay the release of May data, a government official said on Wednesday, as the country grapples with hyper-inflation.

President Robert Mugabe's government has declared the country's galloping inflation -- put at more than 3,700 percent in April -- as its number-one enemy. But prices continue to rise relentlessly, jumping by as much as 300 percent in the past week alone after the local currency tumbled.


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Zimbabwe tables bill to localise company ownership

(Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe's government is seeking to transfer majority control of "public companies and any other business" to black Zimbabweans, a move critics say could deepen the country's economic crisis.

A bill the government made public on Monday will be presented to parliament proposing indigenous black Zimbabweans will get at least a 51 percent share of those companies.


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Zimbabwe business pessimistic about recovery - survey

(Reuters) - Fewer than 5 percent of Zimbabwe's industrialists believe the country will recover from its deepening economic crisis in the next three years, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The southern African country is in its eighth successive year of recession, marked by the world's highest inflation rate at above 3,700 percent and which has left four in five people without jobs and people struggling to feed their families.


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Zimbabwe raises power tariffs as shortages worsen

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe on Tuesday raised electricity tariffs by more than 50 percent as it battles worsening power shortages in the country and a vicious inflation spiral which has increased economic hardships.

A subsidiary of the state power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) Holdings said in a statement it was raising electricity prices for both domestic and industrial use by 50.2 percent and would be making further increases in line with inflation.


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