Zim’s inflation jumps to 756%

Harare(New Ziana) – Zimbabwe’s annual inflation for April stood at 765.57 percent after gaining 89.18 percentage points from the previous month, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has said.

Inflation stood at 676.39 percent in March.

“The year on year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of April 2020 as measured by the all items CPI (Consumer Price Index) stood at 765.57 percent,” Zimstat said.

Zimstat said month-on-month inflation in April was 17.64 percent, having shaded 8.95 percentage points from March.

Instability of the exchange rate, which is being driven by the parallel market, is in turn pushing up the prices of goods and services.

High demand for foreign currency on the black market has been blamed on shortages on the official market where the exchange rate has been fixed at USD1:ZW25.

But on the parallel market, the local currency is trading at more than $55 for one greenback.

Government this week put in place bank account transfer limits which the central bank said were being used to fuel the parallel market.

But analysts have said the measures will temporarily neutralise but were still not enough to tame it.
New Ziana