Inflation Soars to a Record 231,000,000% in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s inflation soared to a record 231 million percent in July on the back of runaway food prices triggered by long political instability official statistics showed Thursday.

The rate was previously pegged at the then world-record 11.2 million percent in June.

The Central Statistical Office also said that month-on-month price increases averaged 2,600 percent between June and July, reflecting the severe pressure on prices since the country plunged into a post-election crisis three months ago.

Zimbabwe has not had a substantive government since President Robert Mugabe was controversially re-elected in June in a poll condemned by the rest of the world as a “sham” and boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Independent economists, however, say the official inflation rate is an understatement of the real rate of increases in prices.

The price increases are the manifestations of an eight-year economic crisis highlighted by an unstable currency and shortages of basic commodities, fuel and electricity.

Source African Press Agency

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