A fair bit of reporting is being in the right place at the right time. And luck.
Flew into Harare this morning to do some reporting on the economy. Stopped to chat to drivers at a petrol station near the airport. There was fuel and the queue was moving. But the mood was dark. “What we are facing now we last faced in 2008”, said one man.
Just as I was chatting to another, less pessimistic driver, he pointed out that Zimbabwe’s finance minister had turned up at the petrol station. @MthuliNcube had arrived back from World Bank/IMF meetings in Bali and wanted to see what was happening on the ground.
Minister invited me to follow him to a Spar down the road. Unlike a few other supermarkets the shelves were almost fully stocked, bar cooking oil, sugar and soft drinks. But the prices, while not as high as last week, were still ridiculously steep.
A choice selection here. $20 Coco Pops. $19 deodorant. And ... the Economist at $16 (bargain). Even non-imports expensive: $8 eggs, $18/kg beef 
But the item that especially interested Moses, one of the managers, was the $49 pack nappies. Pack was $23 a few weeks ago. His checkout staff are paid $300 per month, he noted.
Why is everything so expensive? It’s a long story but remember that these items are not really priced in US dollars but “zollars”, a collection of parallel currencies, which the Zim government insists are still worth 1:1 with USD, despite the street FX market suggesting otherwise
There is a severe lack of foreign currency in Zim and the government has been living beyond its means, effectively printing money to cover itself, and converting savers’ USD into “zollars” that few believe are at par. Exporters are being squeezed to subsidise imports, eg fuel
In addition to the pervasive lack of trust and confidence in the system, suppliers to supermarkets are insisting on being paid in USD, or at least cash-on-demand, which raises prices
Tbf the minister spent a long time chatting to the manager and to customers. He seems to get it. I strongly suspect he wants to let the zollar float freely and to get rid of import restrictions. But not everyone in the government is on board.
This is not 2008. But it is a sad, serious situation -- and the memories of hyperinflation mean it is a fragile one too. One reason the shops sold out last week was because people remembered how quickly their money became worthless.
More reporting to follow in @theeconomist. But it’s not every day you play supermarket sweep with a finance minister.
Though I don’t think the picture editor will accept my snaps ...
