High energy, housing costs blamed for Zimbabwe’s monthly inflation rise in April

Zimbabwe’s month-on-month inflation rate rose to 2.4 percent in April, gaining 2.3 percentage points on the previous month’s rate of 0.1 percent, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) said Wednesday.

The jump in the rate of inflation was mainly due to increases in housing, water and electricity rates, as well as a rise in prices of gas and other fuels, the ZIMSTAT said.

“The Consumer Price Index for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels had the highest month-on-month inflation rate of 7.9 percent, followed by health at 4.0 percent,” the ZIMSTAT said.

Annual inflation dropped to 75.2 percent in April from 87.6 percent in March, continuing with its downward trend against the background of a tight monetary and fiscal policy stance by the government.

Zimbabwe’s monthly and annual inflation progressively declined from peak levels of 30.7 percent in June and 285 percent in August last year, respectively, following a tight monetary and fiscal policy stance by the government.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s central bank, envisages annual inflation to progressively decline to between 10 percent and 30 percent by year-end. Enditem