News / National
Zimbabwe inflation hit 31.01%
17 Dec 2018 at 10:34hrs | Views
Zimbabwe's annual inflation continues to surge after it reached 31% in the month of November, gaining 10.16 percentage points on the October 2018 rate of 20.85%, according to Zimstat.
The CPI for the month ending November 2018 stood at 129.65 compared to 118.73 in October 2018 and 98.97 in November 2017. This means that prices, as measured by the all items CPI, increased by an average of 31% between November 2017 and November 2018.
The rise in the annual inflation rate for October was driven by mainly food inflation which carries a 31.98% weight on the total CPI basket. The year on year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 42.71% against 26.8% in October 2018. However, the month on month Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation rate stood at 14.53% in November 2018, dropping 5.59 percentage points on the October 2018 rate of 20.12%.
The move reflects growing investor concerns about the multi-currency system which has been contaminated by close to nine billion RTGS dollars and Bond Notes that are not backed by actual hard currency. The surrogate currencies, which government claims are at par in value with the United States dollar, have lost significant value on the parallel market with some trades going as high as US$1 to RTGS$4.10 (310 percent) last week.
The rise in the annual inflation rate for October was driven by mainly food inflation which carries a 31.98% weight on the total CPI basket. The year on year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 42.71% against 26.8% in October 2018. However, the month on month Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation rate stood at 14.53% in November 2018, dropping 5.59 percentage points on the October 2018 rate of 20.12%.
The move reflects growing investor concerns about the multi-currency system which has been contaminated by close to nine billion RTGS dollars and Bond Notes that are not backed by actual hard currency. The surrogate currencies, which government claims are at par in value with the United States dollar, have lost significant value on the parallel market with some trades going as high as US$1 to RTGS$4.10 (310 percent) last week.
Source - online
