Zimbabwean clothing giant Power Sales has scaled down operations in the southern Africa nation as the economic crunch bites even harder, saying it has shut-down more than 25 clothing shops due to increased flooding of cheap Chinese goods in the local clothing industry.

“The prevailing economic conditions have caused the closure of our non-profitable stores in Zimbabwe. As a result, the company embarked on a down sizing exercise operation that has seen us shedding non-performing stores off,” said Power Sales spokesman Fanuel Mahachi.

Cheap substandard Chinese products have flooded the Zimbabwe clothing market in  past recent years under the country’s government’s Look East policy.

Under Look East policy most Zimbabwe companies are encouraged to trade more with countries in Asia and Middle East than the western world.

This  has  seen several clothing  companies shutting down due to viability problems, throwing over 20,000 workers onto the streets, according to a report by labour federation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and a non-governmental organisation, Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development titled “De-industrialisation in Zimbabwe.