Month-on-month inflation retreats

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S month-on-month inflation rate for January 2022 retreated to 5,34 percent after shedding 0,42 percentage points on the December 2021 rate of 5,76 percent.

Official data released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) this week also indicate that year-on-year inflation for January 2022 stood at 60,61 percent after closing last year at 60,74 percent.

“The month-on-month inflation rate in January 2022 was 5,34 percent shedding 0,42 percentage points on the December 2021 rate of 5,76 percent.

“This means that prices as measured by the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by an average rate of 5,34 percent from December 2021 to January 2022,” said Zimstat.

“The year-on-year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of January 2022 as measured by the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 60,61 percent.”

This means that prices as measured by the all-items CPI increased by an average of 60,61 percent between January 2021 and January 2022. It said the month-on-month food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation rate stood at 6,79 percent in January 2022, gaining 0,57 percentage points on the December 2021 rate of 6,22 percent.

The month-on-month non-food inflation rate stood at 4,25 percent, shedding 1,16 percentage points on the December 2021 rate of 5,41 percent.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has blamed widening exchange rate premiums on the alternative market stoking inflation, which has in turn fuelled increases in prices of goods and services since July 2022.

Economists believe three key factors have driven the fast increase in inflation in Zimbabwe and these include general rise in global inflation, growth in money supply and the widening parallel market rate.

Zimbabwe’s inflation had been on a rapid decline for most of last year, touching a low of 56 percent last July from a post dollarisation record of 837,5 percent 12 months earlier.

The country has battled sharp increases in inflation, the second time within two decades since scrapping a US dollar-based currency regime adopted in 2009 in February 2019. – @KazungaOliver.