Quote Originally Posted by ians View Post
I have also noticed how prices of everything have increased ... in some cases as much as 40 % ... the attitude is oh well it is thanks to covid ... supply and demand.
A friend of mine has a company that does travel Visas. They used to do 500-600 per month - since Covid started they do 50-60 a month. The travel industry is said to only (maybe) get back to normal mid 2022. Covid has really hit some industries very hard.

Businesses are hard up for cash - I purchased a R12k printer from a reputable dealer last week for R5k and I get an additional rebate of R1k from the manufacturer.

Given the drop in income in many households I think people simply forego spending. General manufacturing in the country is down by 49% and car manufacturing is down by 98% - Companies try to recoup these loses by increasing prices which leads to increased lending which in turn leads to bad debt (which leads to increased bank fees etc) ....it goes round and round...