Zimbabwe resumes publishing inflation figures

ZTN Reporter

Zimbabwe, which stopped publishing year on year inflation figures last year, will resume the process next month.

In a statement on Thursday, ZimStats, the country’s sole data collector, said the move was meant to give the new currency time to stabilize.

“In February 2019, the government of Zimbabwe introduced the RTGS dollar at an exchange rate of US$1:2.5 RTGS. This was followed by Statutory Instrument 142 of 2019 that ushered in a mono-currency regime. These monetary policy reforms impacted on the computation of Consumer Price Indices, as prices for the period prior to the introduction of the RTGS dollar were informed by a multi-currency regime,” read part of the statement.

It added: “ Resultantly, computation and publication of the year on year rate of inflation was deferred for a period of 12 months to February 2020.”

Last year, Finance minister Professor Mthuli Ncube was dragged to the High Court by National Social Security Authority employees who, in conjunction with members of the Zimbabwe Pension and Insurance Rights Trust, were seeking an order to declare as unconstitutional, null and void his decision to ban publishing of annualised inflation figures.