One loaf of bread now costs 3.50 RTGS dollars in Zimbabwe, a sharp increase from 1.80 RTGS dollars on Monday, according to Reuters.
RTGS or Real Time Gross Settlement Dollar was introduced as the new currency by the government in February this year after facing acute shortages of U.S. Dollars.
On Tuesday, the RTGS dollar was trading at 3.19 to the dollar on the interbank market and 5 on the black market. That means a loaf of bread costs about 70 U.S. cents a loaf, in a country where the average income is around $4 a day, as per africanews.com.
While there has been a constant increase in the prices of basic commodities such as cooking oil, sugar and milk and now bread, salaries have largely remained unchanged. In January, several people lost their lives after a military crackdown on their protests against a spike in fuel prices.
Year-on-year inflation raced to 66.8 percent in March, up from 59.39 the previous month, according to statistics agency Zimstats.
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The government under the leadership of current President Emmerson Mnangagwa is drawing criticism and angst from the people due to cash shortages, rising inflation and meagre incomes.
Mnangagwa, a former spy chief installed after Mugabe’s removal in a coup in November 2017, was elected in July amid hopes that he would help secure an economic turnaround for Zimbabwe, and has said his nation is “open for business.”