News / National
ZimStat must ditch blended statistics
01 Aug 2023 at 12:59hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development has urged the ZimStat to ditch the blended statistics to ensure transparency.
This is revealed in its weekly Economic Review and Analysis.
"Through the Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) released in early February 2023, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) argued that ZWL inflation no longer reflects the true market dynamics as the bulk of banking sector deposits (64.2%) and market transactions (76.56%) were denominated in USD in 2022," reads the review.
"The Bank advocated for the adoption of blended inflation which is based on the respective weights of currencies used in household transactions per period. As such, the stable USD has more weight in blended inflation figures than the highly fragile ZWL which accounted for a meagre 23.44% of formal transactions as per the available 2022 statistics."
The Zimcodd noted that ZimStat recently released the July 2023 inflation statistics which show the distortive impact of relying on blended inflation statistics and bring in questions about the sustainability of the prevailing stability of the ZWL.
"Annual inflation was reported at 101.3% from 175.8% reported in June 2023. This means that consumer purchasing power has declined by more than 100% over the last year ending July 2023. From a month-on-month (MoM) perspective, the blended statistics show that Zimbabwe has moved from hyperinflation in June 2023 to deflation (negative inflation) in July 2023 as MoM price growth plunged from 74.5% to -15.3%," read the review.
This is revealed in its weekly Economic Review and Analysis.
"Through the Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) released in early February 2023, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) argued that ZWL inflation no longer reflects the true market dynamics as the bulk of banking sector deposits (64.2%) and market transactions (76.56%) were denominated in USD in 2022," reads the review.
"The Bank advocated for the adoption of blended inflation which is based on the respective weights of currencies used in household transactions per period. As such, the stable USD has more weight in blended inflation figures than the highly fragile ZWL which accounted for a meagre 23.44% of formal transactions as per the available 2022 statistics."
The Zimcodd noted that ZimStat recently released the July 2023 inflation statistics which show the distortive impact of relying on blended inflation statistics and bring in questions about the sustainability of the prevailing stability of the ZWL.
"Annual inflation was reported at 101.3% from 175.8% reported in June 2023. This means that consumer purchasing power has declined by more than 100% over the last year ending July 2023. From a month-on-month (MoM) perspective, the blended statistics show that Zimbabwe has moved from hyperinflation in June 2023 to deflation (negative inflation) in July 2023 as MoM price growth plunged from 74.5% to -15.3%," read the review.
Source - Byo24News
