“There’s just no liquidity” said Phil the Banker, glumly shaking his head. I also blame this lack of cash on the run of poor business we’ve had at the nursery over the last 3 months. Of course, having to rely on diesel power to irrigate one’s crops as the national power grid is so unreliable doesn’t help either.
“Yes”, I replied, “we are just not producing anything”. This is not strictly true, we areproducing lots of diamonds, probably in excess of 1 billion US dollars worth but precious little (excuse the pun) is getting back into the economy.
The retail economy is definitely suffering too. I have been doing a bit of browsing with view to replace at least one of the armchairs I own that probably predate me – they are more than a bit tatty and uncomfortable too. I have been into three outlets that sell furniture this week and in all cases I was the only person in the shop. The cheapest armchair I could find was US$450 which puts replacing the entire suite well into the fantasy realm. Yes, I don’t have the liquidity either! There was not a lot of choice in style either and curiously, just about everything was covered in leather which is obviously targeting the luxury market. Made in Zimbabwe? Just one chair.
Zimbabwe Absurdity 
Refurb?
I would think there would be a big used furniture business from all the people who’ve left the country…?
Done the refurb thing once, now it’s beyond it. @Big Blister – that stuff is long gone and I think is mostly sold on the auctions. Besides, I would think demand way outweighs supply for second hand stuff.