JUST IN: Annual inflation continues to slow

Zimbabwe’s inflation continues to trend down or moderate within the authorities’ projections on account of the tight fiscal and monetary policy positions of both the Treasury and the central bank, respectively.

Zimbabwe’s official year on year inflation rate for the month of June 2021 slowed to 106.64 percent from 161.9 percent in May, according to Zimstat.

This means prices in the economy have been increasing at a slower pace in June this year than they did in June last year and also when compared to May this year.

However, month on month inflation accelarated to 3.88 percent in June 2021 gaining 1.34 percentage points on the May 2021 rate of 2.54 percent.

This means prices increased by a bigger margin in June this year than they did in May last year.

The month on month blended inflation rate, which takes into account price changes in US dollar terms was 4.49 percent gaining 2.69 percentage points on the May 2021 rate of 1.80 percent.

Again the rate of price increases in June was higher than in May.

The year on year blended inflation rate for the month of June 2021 as measured by the all items blended Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 40.91 percent compared with 74.57 percent in June 2020.

This means, when account for US dollar transactions, the rate of price increases has slowed down.

RBZ has forecast inflation to slow down to 55 percent in July. The IMF previously projected inflation of 99.3 percent for 2021, while World Bank sees an 86 percent average.