HARARE – Zimbabwe’s inflation rate hit 131.7% in May, the statistics office said on Wednesday, as the aftermath of war in Ukraine hit an already struggling economy.
Inflation hit triple digits for the first time since June last year, as cooking oil and bread prices soared following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The government tried to squeeze prices last week by suspending import duties on staples like cooking oil, rice and flour.
Inflation was already at 96.4% in April, Zimbabwe’s National Statistics Agency said in a statement.
Due to a shortage of foreign exchange, local businesses find it difficult to source supplies from abroad to produce goods in Zimbabwe.
The war in Ukraine cut off a major supplier of wheat to Zimbabwe and also reduced the supply of agricultural chemicals for local crops.
The price spike brings back memories of hyperinflation more than a decade ago, when inflation got so out of control that the central bank issued a $100 trillion note in 2008, which today has become a collectible item.
The government then abandoned the local currency and adopted the US dollar and the South African rand as legal tender.
But in 2019, the government reintroduced the Zimbabwean dollar, which is already depreciating rapidly.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has however maintained that the economy is doing well and the crisis Zimbabwe is facing is not unique to the world.
- AFP/ additional report by RosGwen24 News
