Business Reporter
SUSTAINED economic policies implementation have once again pushed down the country’s inflation levels down, latest data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) has revealed.
The data released this week shows that month on month inflation rate for the month of January 2022 retreated to 5, 34% after shedding 0, 42% on the December 2021 rate of 5, and 76%
The official data released this week indicates that year on year inflation for January 2022 stood at 60, 61% down from 60, and 74%
“The month on month inflation rate in January 2022 was 5,34% shedding o,42 on the December 2021 rate of 5,76%.This means that prices as measured by the items Consumer Price Index increased by an average of 5,34% from December 2021 to January 2022,” said ZIMSTAT.
Inflationary levels sustained a downward trend for the better part of 2021 but only surged towards the close of the year due to a number of factors which partly include the effect of the parallel market speculation.
Since 2019, Zimbabwe has consistently implemented a raft of economic reforms which have resulted in a huge cutback in government expenditure and the introduction of the local Zim$ currency which has maintained relative stability.
The introduction of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Foreign Currency Exchange Auction platform has also gone a long way to support companies’ needs leaving the parallel market to cater for small trades which do not have a wider impact on broad based national economic needs.
In 2021 alone, the auction disbursed a whooping US$1, 9 billion which has gone a long way to fund critical imports required by the manufacturing sector.
Coupled with other national policy measures which have seen the reduction in unbudgeted government expenditure alongside the implementation of broad policies like the National Development Strategy among other, the inflation rates are likely to sustain a downward spiral.
However, monetary authorities have urged government to address the high levels of economic informality in order to address existing bottlenecks choking economic stabilization efforts.
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