Zimbabwe: Hunger bites the health and education sectors

The effects of the government's month-old price-control policies, which have brought widespread shortages of basic commodities, are also beginning to tell in the education, health and social service sectors. The government launched "Operation Reduce Prices" in late June in an attempt to cap escalating prices as businesses tried to cushion themselves against the world's highest inflation rate - over 4,000 percent - although some independent economists estimate the actual inflation rate at about 20,000 percent.