Running on empty.

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Mike Bvunzawabaya is one of HarareCOs luckier residents. As a security guard at a large supermarket, he is able to buy a loaf of bread at the official price of eight Zimbabwe dollars, which he then resells for 120 dollars.C[pounds sterling]At least I am not stealing from anyone,C[yen] is how he justifies the thriving sideline trade of 15 to 20 loaves which his brother runs while he is at work.C[pounds sterling]We are now all employed,C[yen] says vunzawabaya. C[pounds sterling]If we do not do that, how do you honestly think we would survive ;C[yen]While ZimbabweCOs political rivals thrash out nuances trying to reach a power-sharing deal, ordinary citizens like Bvunzawabaya are juggling the dual problem of the worldCOs highest inflation rate of 11.2 million per cent and major food shortages.The countryCOs official inflation rate soared nine million percentage points in June amid an intensified political crisis after President Robert Mugabe held a widely condemned one-man, presidential run-off vote.In one rural village, people have turned to barter trade, exchanging a bar of soap for 50 kilogrammes of maize, and are cutting down on meals.Villagers who once stashed savings from grain sales are now refusing to accept cash as they cannot afford bus fares to travel to shops and fear the money will be worthless before they arrive.In cities, some doctors ask to be paid in cash rather than charging medical insurance schemes, saying that the money will have lost value by the time they are reimbursed. Some schools are charging school fees in fuel coupons.In Harare, a 29-year-old Air Zimbabwe worker did not go to work last week as she could not afford the transport costs to get there.C[pounds sterling]It costs me more to go to work,C[yen] she said, adding that the number of travellers using the airline has dropped.The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that 83 per cent of Zimbabweans are living on less than two US dollars a day and that 45 per cent of the total population is malnourished.Once known as the regionCOs breadbasket, ZimbabweCOs overall maize production for 2008 is estimated to drop 28 per cent lower than last yearCOs already low levels.

The countryCOs inflation sky-rocketed from an all-time high of 100,000 per cent in February to a new record high of 11.2 million per cent, which some analysts say could reach as high as 600 million per cent.Recently, the state-controlled Herald newspaper carried a story about a man who invested his retirement package in a fixed account with a building society ten years ago.But when he went to withdraw his savings, he was told the money was worth one cent after the countryCOs central bank knocked ten zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar.C[pounds sterling]Pension funds are in serious trouble,C[yen] commented Tony Hawkins, an economist from the University of Zimbabwe. C[pounds sterling]Savings become worthless within days and this happens in any situation where you have hyper-inflation.C[yen]An estimated three million Zimbabweans are said to be living outside the country, many of them in neighbouring South Africa whose President Thabo Mbeki is mediating talks between Mugabe and two opposition factions.The countryCOs economic meltdown has continued in the worsening political crisis which intensified after the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off election due to fears of violence.A regional summit of Southern African leaders in Johannesburg at the weekend failed to bring the sides to a settlement, which is needed to tackle the ZimbabweCOs urgent social and economic problems.The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the WFP estimate that four million people - more than a third of 11.8 million Zimbabweans - will need food assistance by next year.

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