The country’s year on year inflation rate has increased , according to the latest report by the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (Zimstat) Friday.
According to Zimstats, the month of January 2019 as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 56.90 percent, while that of December 2018 rate was 42.09 percent.
This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average of 56.90 percent between January 2018 and January 2019.
The year on year Food and Non Alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 63.71 percent whilst the Non-food inflation rate was 53.60 percent.
The CPI for the month ending January 2019 stood at 156.56 compared to 141.36 in December 2018 and 99.79 in January 2018.
Zimstats stated that the data on prices was collected during the period from January 17 to January 23 this year.
However, critics have always come out guns blazing on the authenticity of the figures released by Zimstats in comparison with the situation on the ground where there is massive hike of prices of basic commodities.
Zimbabwe’s inflation reached 500 billion percent in 2008, rendering the local currency worthless and leaving savings and pensions useless.
The country went on to adapt a basket of currencies, among them the South African rand, Botswana pula, British sterling pound and the United States dollar in a bid to bring stability to the economy.
Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya then introduced surrogate currency known as the bond note in an attempt to stabilise the economy.
