Businesses in Uganda's capital, Kampala, have closed their shops and are boycotting banks to protest at high interest rates.
Uganda's Central Bank raised rates last year when inflation hit more than 20%.
Shopkeepers in Kampala say interest rates of up to 27% are crippling their businesses.
A BBC correspondent says most shops are closed, leaving customers who travel to Kampala from across East Africa unable to stock up.
The Kampala City Traders' Association - which called the strike after two days of negotiations with the government broke down - say shops will stay closed for three days.
Business owners also say for the next three days they will withdraw all their savings from commercial banks and stop making any deposits into their accounts.
The BBC's Ignatius Bahizi says hundreds of people are standing around on street corners, with the police monitoring the situation.
Kampala is an east African trading hub and many of the people unable to shop have come from other parts of Uganda, as well as eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
City traders have used this tactic before, in July last year, to protest over the country's weakened currency and the presence of cheap goods in Chinese shops.
-BBC
