Zimbabwe’s annual inflation slowed to 243,8% in December from 255% in November, the Standard reported citing a report issued by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) on Wednesday.
According to the report, month-on-month inflation for the month was 2.4%, higher than November’s 1.8%.
The statistics also showed an individual in the country now needs ZW$22 193 per month to afford basic needs. The report read:
Total Consumption Poverty Line for one person stood at $29 219 in December 2022.
Month-on-month inflation peaked this year at 30.7% in June.
The consumer price index (CPI) for December 2022 stood at 13 672 91 compared to 13 349 42 in November 2022.
Economist Prosper Chitambara said inflation had slowed down, but prices were still shooting up. He told NewsDay:
Two hundred and forty-three percent is still the highest inflation rate in the world and it creates a lot of challenges for the economy and consumers. The fact that it has slowed down does not mean that prices are going down. Our pricing is still on the very high side — look at fuel, bread and so on, they are still going up. As long as prices continue to increase, then it even makes it more difficult for the ordinary person to survive.
Secondly, when we look at our inflation figures, some scholars have argued that they don’t reflect the full extent of price developments in an economy that is now highly informal. So our official figures tend to understate the challenges with respect to price increases because they are based on a small formal segment whereas the economy has now been informalised to a greater extent.
Some analysts believe the increase in month-on-month can be attributed to Christmas spending and the bonuses that were paid by various companies to their employees which increased aggregate demand.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has targeted to contain monthly inflation below 3% in 2023.
On trade statistics for November 2022, ZIMSTAT said the total value of exports increased from US$498.5 million in October 2022 to US$671.3 million in November 2022.
Imports increased from US$758.8 million in October to US$797.9 million in November 2022.