Zimbabwe’s inflation surges to six-month high of 66.1%

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation accelerated to 66.1% in February, up from 60.6% the previous month to reach a six-month high, according to the data released by Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT).

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation has been gradually rising since September last year, with monetary authorities attributing this to the parallel exchange rates pass-through effect on domestic inflation toward the end of last year.

In his monetary policy statement earlier this month, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya acknowledged the resurgence of inflationary pressures in the economy and said the Bank will sustain tight monetary policy measures to bring further stability to the exchange rate and inflation.

According to the ZIMSTAT, the monthly inflation in February quickened to 7%, gaining 1.7 percentage points on the January rate of 5.3%.

“This means that prices, as measured by the all items for Consumer Price Index, increased by an average rate of 7.0 percent from January 2022 to February 2022,” the statistical agency said.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in 2022, the government intends to halve the inflation figure and achieve an inflation target of 32.6%, as a result of counter inflationary measures that will be implemented during the course of the year.

“From runaway triple-figure inflation, by December 2021, year-on-year inflation had dropped to 60.7 percent,” said Ncube. “In 2022, our government plans to halve that number to achieve an inflation target of 32.6 percent and implement an end period range of 15-20 percent.”

He said while inflation in the range of 30 percent would be still high, “it is light years away from the numbers we have seen in the past.” – Xinhua

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