Zimbabwe to have dark Christmas amid power cuts, high prices

By FARAI MUTSAKA
Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has loosened restrictions on travel and gatherings with the threat from COVID-19 receding. But a buoyant holiday mood is not lifting the country which is coping with widespread power outages and the world’s highest food inflation. Globally, food prices have spiked as a result of the war in Ukraine and Zimbabweans are hard hit. The southern African nation of 15 million people has the world’s highest food inflation, at 321%, according to a World Bank food security update in December. Electricity shortages that have been plaguing the country for years have worsened. Power generation at Kariba Dam, which usually provides about 70% of Zimbabwe’s electricity, has plummeted to about 300 megawatts down from its capacity of 1,050 megawatts.