Zimbabwe projects inflation to fall by 140 percentage points in two moths

The Zimbabwe central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee has projected that inflation, the country’s worst enemy over the past two years, will fall to below 55% by July, a drop of nearly 140 percentage points from the April figure of 194.1%.

Inflation stood at 785.5% a year ago but peaked at 837.5% in July before declining to 348.6% at year end.

It, however, rose to 362.6% in January but started declining after that to 194.1% last month.

Month-on-month inflation which was 5.4% in January was down to 1.6% last month. The aim is to get to 1% or less by the end of the year.

The central bank wants inflation to be about 10% by the end of the year. It is banking on a stable local currency through the foreign exchange auction system that it introduced in June last year.

The Zimbabwe dollar kicked off at $57.36 to the United States on 23 June and had dropped to $81.79 by the end of the year. It was down to $84.53 yesterday.

The Monetary Policy Committee said it will continue with its conservative policy stance to ensure that the current price stability is maintained.

The MPC approved a $500 million facility for small and medium enterprises but pegged interest at 30% per annum.

Sceptics, especially those from the country’s main opposition, continue to complain that the country is sinking but former opposition legislator Eddie Cross says President Emmerson Mnangagwa is doing a good job but the world does not know about this because he is a lousy politician and poor communicator.

“I am deeply critical of people like the IMF who have feet on the ground here. They know exactly what’s going on. They get information from our system every week, every day almost. And they know damn well what’s happening and they can seethe the consequences and they have given them (Mnangagwa’s administration) absolutely no credit for it whatsoever,” Cross told BizNews radio of South Africa recently.

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