August inflation drops to 18 percent – ZimStat

Harare, (New Ziana) – Zimbabwe’s month-on-month inflation for August shed 2.97 percentage points to close the month at 18.04, data released on Monday shows.

This is the second consecutive drop in the monthly inflation rate after shedding 18.22 percentage points in July.

In June, month-on-month inflation stood at 39.26 percent, while annual inflation was at 176 percent.

“This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average rate of 18.07 percent from July 2019 to August 2019,” the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) said.

The decline in monthly inflation was on the back of a respective 1.35 and 3.93 percentage points drop in month-on-month food as well as non-food inflation.

A review of salaries that the government effected last month and the resultant surge in prices of goods and services at the beginning of the month is likely to reverse the gains when September inflation figures are announced.

The Zimbabwean government in July suspended the production of annual inflation statistics until February next year in a move that attracted mixed reactions from the market.

“The change in currency regime from the multi-currency to Zimbabwe dollar has definitely impacted on the base for calculation of CPI indices and hence inflation,” said Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube justifying the suspension.

He said publication of year on year inflation was being deferred while Zimstat built up data of prices in mono-currency for a period of 12 months to February 2020 to enable comparison of “like with like in terms of currency regimes.”

In the interim, Ncube said the country would use month-on-month inflation as the barometer for price developments.
New Ziana