Zimbabwe’s monthly inflation for February has hit negative territory for the first time in as many years as authorities appear to have struck the right cord in stabilizing the foreign exchange market which was piling pressure on prices.
Inflation eased by 2.3 percentage points on the January 2023 rate of 0.7 percent to settle at -1.6 percent according to latest figures from the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (Zimstat).
Month-on-month inflation peaked in June last year to 30.7 percent which prompted the Central Bank to hike interest rates from 80% to 200% to curb money supply. Subsequently, lack of liquidity to fuel exchange rate movements on the parallel market has led to a somewhat convergence with the official rate for the Zimbabwe dollar.
The official value for the Zimbabwe Dollar currently stands at 899 against the USD- almost at par with the lowest parallel market rate of 900.
“The month-on-month inflation rate in February 2023 was -1.6 percent shedding 2.3 percentage points on the January 2023 rate of 0.7 percent. The month-on-month inflation rate is computed in accordance with SI 27 of 2023. The month-on-month inflation rate is given by the percentage change in the index of the relevant month compared with the index of the previous month,” said Zimstat.
The year-on-year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of February 2023 as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 92.3 percent.
The year-on-year inflation rate is computed in accordance with SI 27 of 2023 The year-on-year inflation rate is given by the percentage change in the index of the relevant month of the current year compared with the index of the same month in the previous year.
The CPI was 273.65 in February 2023, 278.12 in January 2023 and 142.28 in February 2022.
The CPI for Education had the highest month- on-month inflation rate of 0.2 percent followed by Health a t – 0.6 percent.
The food poverty line (FPL) represents the amount of money that an individual requires to afford daily minimum energy intake of 2 100 calories. The Food Poverty Line (FPL) for one person in February 2023 was ZWL$22,386.00.
The Total Consumption Poverty Line is derived by adding the non-food c consumption expenditure s of poor households to the FPL. The Total Consumption Poverty Line (TCPL) for one person was ZWL$ 29,563.00 in February 2023.
