Zimbabwe currency further crashed this week, precipitating waves of basic commodity price hikes, which were slammed by consumer watchdogs.
In a survey, the Zimbabwe Independent found that many Zimbabweans were  travelling to South Africa to buy basic commodities after discrepancies of up to five times emerged as Harare smouldered again.
Rocketing prices, reminiscent of market mayhems that rocked Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2008, have been mostly underpinned by prolonged turbulences on Zimbabwe’s currency.
Following a decade of dollarisation, Zimbabwe in 2019 brought back its currency into circulation.
But it has been battered on the widely used black market to levels of about US$1:ZW$3 000 as of yesterday, from US$1:2,50 on the year of its return four years ago.
The Zimbabwe dollar depreciated by over 30% in April, after shedding 58% of its value during the first quarter, according to experts.
Yesterday, the Zimbabwe dollar was trading at US$1:ZW$1 407 on the official market.
Zimbabwe’s crisis has been compounded by the fact that most workers earn in the fast-depreciating currency, with most teachers for instance, earning about ZW$63 000 per month, an amount that is equivalent to about US$45.
They then take their Zimbabwe earnings to the black market to buy US dollars for their daily transactions.
Domestic banks do not sell foreign currency to the general public, unless under special arrangements.
The Independent noted that Zimbabwe dollar-indexed prices were extremely expensive compared to prices obtaining in South Africa, the country’s largest trading partner.
A survey done in Harare’s supermarkets showed that 1kg of sugar cost ZW$3 029,99 or US$1,96 yesterday. Two kgs of RAHA cooking oil was selling at ZW$8499,99 or  US$5,49.
The same product was selling for about US$4,70 in South Africa. Two kgs of Mahatma was selling at ZW$5 799,99, or about US$3,75. In South Africa, the same product was selling for about US$2,10.
But there were also extreme cases of price discrepancies to those in South Africa. Nivea Q10, for instance, was selling for ZW$59 999,99 or US$38,76 in Harare yesterday, compared to about US$3,80 in South Africa.
MAQ washing powder was selling for ZW$14 949,99 or US$9,66, while in South Africa it cost about US$3,50.