HARARE – Delta Corporation hiked beer prices by 25 percent on Monday citing high local costs, announcing the move days after it was forced to abandon another plan to accept only hard currency payments for its products.

Like many companies in Zimbabwe, Delta, which is 40 percent-owned by Anheuser-Busch Inbev, has been hit by an acute shortage of U.S. dollars, affecting its capacity to import inputs like concentrates and remit dividends to foreign shareholders.

Delta said it was still to make a decision on prices of soft drinks and other products.

“The adjustment to the wholesale price is meant to cushion against the significant increases in local costs, confirmed by the official inflation statistics,” Delta said in a statement.

Annual inflation soared to a 10-year high of 31.01 percent in November after prices of basic goods spiked.

Zimbabwe has experienced a shortage of soft drinks and beer since November with shops limiting quantities, while some businesses tripled prices to take advantage of the shortages.

Delta said last week it had abandoned a plan to accept only hard currency payments to cope with a crippling shortage of U.S. dollars, after the government intervened.

Under Delta’s plan, the company would have stopped accepting payments in electronic dollars or a quasi-currency known as bond notes, which most Zimbabweans are paid in.

The dollar shortage has pushed inflation in Zimbabwe to a 10-year high and prompted shortages of basic goods six months into the term of new President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The president had promised to fix the crisis, but his administration now faces push back from businesses over its handling of the currency crunch, just as doctors and teachers stage a nationwide strike demanding better pay and conditions.

Zimbabwe adopted the use of foreign currency, mainly the U.S. dollar, in 2009 after its own currency was beset by hyperinflation, but a severe shortage of physical notes has seen deposits in Zimbabweans’ bank accounts lose value compared with cash.

The central bank issued the bond notes, pegged to the dollar, in a bid to fix the shortage, but this too lost value against the dollar.