Zimbabwe: Monthly Inflation Hits 2.4% - Says ZimStat

26 April 2023
New Zimbabwe (London)
By Alois Vinga

Monthly  inflation reached 2, 4% in the month of April 2023 with the annual inflation rates stabilising, Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) reported Wednesday.

The latest figures come at a time when the ZWL is going through the test of times after breaching US$1:ZWL2 000 this week in a development which market analysts blamed on the government's bulk payments to contractors.

"The month-on-month inflation rate in April 2023 was 2,4%, gaining 2,3 percentage points on the March 2023 rate of 0.1%. This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average of 2.4% from March 2023 to April 2023," the statistics agency said.

The month-on-month inflation rate is given by the percentage change in the index of the relevant month of the current year compared with the index of the previous month in the current year.

The month-on-month Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation rate was at -1,2% in April 2023, shedding 1,5% on the March 2023 rate of 0,3%.

The month-on-month non-food inflation rate was 5, 1%, gaining 5,1 percentage points on the March 2023 rate of 0.0%.

"The year-on-year inflation rate for the month of April 2023 as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 75, 2% percent.

"This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average of 75.2 percent between April 2022 and April 2023," said Zimstat.

The current figure signifies a huge decline from the rate of 87,6% recorded in the period March 2023.

In a bid to deal with inflationary pressures before they reach unsustainable levels, treasury has started supporting government contractors who are the main culprits in the economy causing rapid ZWL depreciation with foreign currency to minimize black market pressures being exerted from this constituency.

The Financial Intelligence Unit is scaling up its monitoring of especially the contractors who are paid US$ portion by the government to meet their import requirements.

On the other hand, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is working flat out to roll out the digital gold tokens, which were approved by the Monetary Policy Committee.

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