MAPUTO: “There’ll be no festive season,” grumbles a greengrocer in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, where the economy has taken a nosedive and the local currency has hit a historic low against the dollar.
Lourdes Mutembene hopes to sell a kilogramme of tomatoes for 60 meticals (1.1 euros / $1.2), compared with 35 meticals a few months back, but her stall has become too costly for most customers. Hard times have fallen on the southern African country because of a fall in world prices of raw materials coupled with some much-criticised public spending.
“At Zimpeto (a Maputo suburb) where we fetch our supplies, they say that everything has gone up because of the dollar and the rand” in neighbouring South Africa, Mutembene explains, leaning on her counter.
At the next stand, Abou Sangare, a tailor from Ivory Coast, points to his reels of fabric with equal bitterness. “All the stuff we buy here comes from South Africa and all the prices have gone up,” he says.
The Mozambican metical has dropped by more than 40 percent against the US dollar since the beginning of the year, marking the worst ever decline by an African currency except for the Zambian kwacha, according to Bloomberg’s financial information service.
