Zimbabwe stops publishing year-on-year inflation until February next year

Zimbabwe will defer publication of year-on-year inflation until February next year, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told Parliament yesterday.

Ncube said the change in currency regime from multi-currency to the Zimbabwe dollar had impacted on the base for calculation of CPI indices and, hence, inflation.

Zimbabwe’s inflation was last recorded at 176% for the month of June, the highest in ten years.

“Given this transition, Zimstat will defer publication of year-on-year inflation while building up data of prices in mono-currency for a period of 12 months to February 2020,” said Ncube.

“This will ensure that we compare like with like in terms of currency regimes.”

He said a similar decision was made in 2009 after the change of currency regime, whereby Zimstat resorted to only gazetting month-on-month inflation.

“Year-on-year inflation publication will therefore resume after February 2020, alongside with month-on-month inflation publication.”

In the interim, stakeholders are encouraged to focus more on month-on-month inflation as barometer for price developments, said Ncube.- Fin24

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