Zimbabwe's Central Statistical Office said Friday that its so-called Poverty Datum Line indicating the basic living cost for a family of five soared in August to Z$12 million (US$34) from some $11 million in July and $8.2 million in June.
Those amounts are far more than what the average Zimbabwean worker earns - and in any case at least 80% of the workforce is unemployed.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze of the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the freeze on prices and wages put into effect last month by President Robert Mugabe failed to keep the poverty line from rising.