After decades of peace in Europe, war is raging in the heart of Europe. Factually it is a war between two countries in the Eastern part of one of seven continents ― Europe, 11,000 Kms away from us.
Significantly though, it is a war between the second largest producer of oil and a leading producer of Iron & Steel, Cereals, and more.
The pandemic demonstrated how connected we are as a global community.
The aftermath of this war too ― is slated to affect all countries, including Zimbabwe.
In this blog, read of some factors that will impact us living in Zimbabwe, and how to find a way around the impacts.
Although Zimbabwe doesn’t import Russian oil ― globally, the supply chains are being reshaped with some countries considering reducing dependency on Russian oil.
This eventually impacts us, as those countries will affect the bidding price from our oil procurement source.
Since oil drives the economy, logistics, and freight using it to move the consumer items from the source to the consumers. An increase in the oil prices will increase the commodity prices resulting in inflation across the country.
In 2019 Russia and Ukraine together accounted for 25% of the world’s wheat exports.
As these exports continue to dry up, prices of food-items will be impacted leading to costlier cereals and the rest of the food items.
This can be over and above the oil-driven inflation.
According to a report by the World Bank Global Trade and Investment will be affected with world trade estimated to drop by 1 percent.
With a reshuffle of world politics, world trade is also scheduled to change.
The significance of this is the long-term impact of the war, further leading to the increase in prices.
A prolonged war situation can also lead to weakened currencies around the world. Zimbabwe stands to lose in this regard.
The reason is that we are heavily dependent on imports and we are classified as a "Supermarket” economy and not a producer economy. Global trade and currency impacts are likely to have a larger bearing on us.
Since the economy is interconnected with all that is happening around in the country. Rising inflation and less global trade will eventually have a telling impact on businesses in our country.
Businesses not doing well means stagnant or lesser salaries across employees in all industries.
The rising cost of living and stagnant salaries means now households will have to find out means to increase savings for themselves.
Which in turn means finding alternative ways to go about their daily shopping preferences.
Although we can not control what is happening around the world, we can reform our shopping preferences as a way around the inflation-driven rising costs.
ShopExpress, an online supermarket, in Harare offers its customers the best prices on food items.
There are also regular discount schemes.
Also, all food products are sourced considering the best quality, so they have a better shelf life. So fewer chances of wastage.
Moreover, there are savings of time and fuel, which further leads to savings.
All in all, ShopExpress presents a reasonable shopping experience causing a shift in buying preferences of customers.
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