Business Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) says despite the fuel price hikes experienced recently inflation rates will still gravitate within the single digit margins.
As of March 2026, Zimbabwe has experienced significant fuel price hikes, pushing costs above US$2 per litre. Driven by rising global oil prices from Middle East conflicts, these increases are fueling inflation and increasing transport costs.
Presenting the Monetary Policy Committee’s findings this week, RBZ governor, Dr John Mushayavanhu said the significant pass through effects of the recent oil price shock to domestic prices owing to geo-political tensions in the Middle East were noted with concern.
At the same time, the MPC also acknowledged that the increases in fuel prices in a supply side shock cannot be easily managed through monetary policy.
“The increases in domestic fuel prices are likely to have second round effects through adverse inflation expectations, which need an appropriate monetary policy response.
“Month on month will slightly increase in March, April, May 2026, before returning to its steady state levels from June 2026.As a result there will be slight level shift in annual ZiG inflation which however will stay within single digit throughout 2026 and the outlook,” he said.
The central bank governor said reflecting on strong export performance mainly driven by mining exports particularly gold and PGMs, total foreign currency inflows increased to US$3,35 billion during the first two months of 2026 from US$1,89 billion for the comparable period of 2025.
The strong performance, he said, have rebuild foreign exchange reserves and support the stability in the foreign exchange market , while providing adequate backing for the local currency ZWG.
