By Own Correspondent

THE monthly food basket for a family of six rose to $45 336 signifying an increase from last month’s figures representing a sustained mismatch between current salary thresholds and the cost of living.

The latest data from Zimbabwe Statistics Agency shows a 6,1 percent increase from the figure of $42 708 recorded last month.  

In the month of November 2021, month on month inflation stood at 5,76 percent while year on year inflation stood at 58,04percent.

Zimstat also reports that education inflation went up by 128percent, transport 5,57percent, communication 9,37 percent, Research and Culture 3,25 percent, miscellaneous 5,7 percent, Restaurants and Hotels 10,8 percent among other increases.

The current TCPL is far way above minimum wages for most workers and in particular, civil servants like teachers who are still earning net salaries of around $30 000 inclusive of allowances.

The situation is even much more dire for the working class considering that the recently delivered 2022 National Budget has capped the tax free threshold for workers at a paltry $30 000 which , before even going into the next year, is already way below the cost of living.

This implies that workers will endure the pains of a double edged sword where they will be exposed to higher taxation on the one hand and ever increasing cost of living on the other.

The cost of living has been worsening since October this year on the back of exchange rates depreciation on the back of huge losses suffered by the local currency on both the official and parallel market.

To this end , the Zim$ is trading at US$1:170 on the black market and US$1:$106 on the official market.

Market watchers have however attributed the current developments to the movement in the exchange rates due to the volatility on the parallel market recently, which authorities have levelled the blame on rising market indiscipline levels.