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Business Reporter

ZIMBABWE’s month-on-month inflation rate dropped to 18,07 percent in August, shedding 2,97 percentage points on the July rate of 21,04 percent.

The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said this in its latest report on month-on-month inflation released yesterday.

“The month-on-month inflation rate in August 2019 was 18,07 percent shedding 2,97 percentage points on the July 2019 rate of 21,04 percent,” it said. 

“This means that prices as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by an average rate of 18,07 percent from July 2019 to August 2019,” said Zimstat.

It also said the month-on-month food and non alcoholic beverages inflation rate stood at 18,55 percent in August 2019, shedding 1,35 percentage points on the July 2019 rate of 19,90 percent. 

The agency also said the month-on-month non-food inflation rate stood at 17,79 percent, shedding 3.93 percentage points on the July 2019 rate of 21.72 percent. 

In the 2019 mid-term national budget tabled early last month, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube suspended the publication of year-on-year inflation figures for the next six months.

He said the publication of year-on-year inflation statistics was being deferred to allow the building up of data of prices in mono-currency for a period of 12 months to February 2020. 

This means that year-on-year inflation publication will, therefore, resume after February next year alongside with month-on-month inflation publication. 

The suspension of year-on-year inflation is not a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe as the country once did it when the multicurrency system was introduced in February 2009.