Zim inflation jumps to 676%

Harare, (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) on Tuesday said the country’s annual inflation for March, 2020 stood at 676.39 percent, an increase of over 139 percentage points from February.

Zimstat resumed publication of annual inflation figures last month, after a break of over seven months that allowed the body to collect comparable data after the introduction of a new currency early last year.

In February, the annual inflation figure stood at 540.16 percent.

“The year on year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of March 2020 as measured by the all items CPI (Consumer Price Index) stood at 676.39 percent,” Zimstat said.

Zimstat said month-on-month inflation in March was 26.59 percent, having gained 13.07 percentage points from the previous month.

Instability of the exchange rate is one of the factors that continued
to drive inflation.

Government last month fixed the exchange rate at USD1:ZWL25 in a move
that attracted mixed feelings.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has said it expects inflation to fall to 50 percent by year end.
New Ziana