Zimbabwe’s inflation rate is currently recorded as the highest in the world according to the calculations by economist Steve Hanke.
According to Hanke’s calculations, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate was at 152% in March 2022, whilst the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe reported that it was 72.7% that same month.
“The year-on-year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of April 2022 as measured by the all items consumer price index (CPI) stood at 96,4%. This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average of 96,4% between April 2021 and April 2022,” the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZimStats) said yesterday.
The RBZ caused inflation to rise when they clamped down on business pegging prices using the parallel exchange rate, following prices in USD to hike.
The annual inflation rate in January 2022 was 60.6%, 66.1% in February and 72.7% in March.
The RBZ auction results on 26 April 2022 show that local currency further loses ground against the USD, the weighted average rate is as follows: 159:3482 from last week’s 155:1419
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean dollar has continued to slide against the USD. On the RBZ’s auction, The Zimbabwean dollar continues to depreciate too.
On the 20th of April 2022, one US dollar was worth ZWL $155.14. It was worth ZWL $84.48 on the same day in 2021. This shows that there was an 84% fall in just one year
In addition, prices of goods in shops are increasing and also rampant fuel prices increase as the inflation continues to rise in Zimbabwe
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has admitted that the economy is facing inflation pressures, and recently announced a raft of measures to stabilise the exchange rate and bring down inflation.
Meanwhile, RBZ has suspended Access Forex domestic money transfer services, a few days after shutting down Sambisa’s Inn-Bucks platform for regulatory noncompliance.
