Zimbabwe consumer prices steady in June as ZiG calms inflation

Zimbabwe consumer prices steady in June as ZiG calms inflation

By Bloomberg News


Zimbabwe’s monthly consumer prices were unchanged as the nation’s stable bullion-backed currency helped put a lid on inflation.

The consumer price index was flat in June after falling 2.4% a month earlier, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency said Friday in an online briefing.

The central bank expects monthly inflation to end the year below 5% as the exchange rate remains stable, Governor John Mushayavanhu said in a statement Wednesday after the monetary policy committee decided to maintain the benchmark interest rate at 20%.

The new currency that’s known as ZiG, short for Zimbabwe Gold, is backed by 2.5 tons of gold and $100 million in foreign-currency reserves held at the central bank. It’s the nation’s sixth attempt at a stable local currency in 15 years. In early April, it replaced the Zimbabwean dollar, which had crashed several times since it was reintroduced in 2019, fanning inflation.

The Zimbabwean dollar had lost value every single trading day this year, depreciating 80% against the greenback before it was abandoned, making day-to-day transactions difficult as more zeros had to be added to the prices of goods in shops and restaurants to keep track of its weakness.

The International Monetary Fund said Thursday the gold-backed unit had ended bouts of instability.

The ZiG fell to a fresh record low of 13.70 per dollar on Friday, data on the central bank’s website show.