Year-on-year inflation rose to 256.9 percent in July shooting by 64 percentage points from June’s 161 percent, latest figures from Zimstat show.
This puts more pressure on the government to do real introspection in order to prevent the economy from collapsing.
The local currency has been crumbling unrelentingly on the parallel market mainly due to government supply of liquidity through its bulk payment system to contractors from its various developmental projects.
This has been exacerbated by global spillovers from the Ukraine war that have heightened food and petroleum prices.
“The year on year inflation rate for the month of July 2022 as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index stood at 256.9 percent,”
“The CPI for the month ending July 2022 stood at 10 932.83 compared to 8 707.35 in June 2022 and 3062.93 in July 2021,” said Zimstat.
The Food Poverty Line for one person in July 2022 was ZW$ 17 909 while the Total Consumption Poverty Line for one person stood at ZW$ 23 479.
Last month the Central Bank raised interest rates to 200 percent which was just above the 191 percent June inflation in an effort to manage money supply by making it expensive to borrow.
Nevertheless, this has not stopped prices from skyrocketing and analysts fear that another bout of interest rates hikes could be imminent.
RBZ Governor Dr Mangudya addressing captains of industry last month said the Bank was ready to increase rates to contain inflation.
This comes a day after Finance and Economic Development Minister; Prof Mthuli Ncube slashed GDP growth projections to 4.6 percent from initial estimates of 5.5 percent citing the impact inflation has had on economic performance.
