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Harare - Zimbabwe’s annual inflation for October gained 0.37 percentage points to close the month at -0.95% from -1.33 % in September, as prices started creeping up on the back of shortages for some basic products such as cooking oil.
Early this month one of the country’s biggest retailers, OK Zimbabwe, said the country, which is predominantly dependent on goods imported mainly from South Africa, experienced some delays in making international settlements for most of 2016.
This situation, coupled with import restrictions, started to impact the supply of products and resulted in some price increases.
Latest figures from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstats) show gains were pushed by an increase in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages as most prices started creeping up.
Zimstats said price hikes were also a result of retailers taking advantage of "forced consumer purchases in return for cashback facilities" as well as a rise in furniture and household equipment prices.
“Year on year Food and Non Alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at -2.03% whilst the Non-food inflation rate was -0.45%,” said Zimstats.
Annual inflation stood at -2.19% in January but is expected to close December in the positive, spurred by recent price increases following the removal of certain goods on open general import and the upward pressure on food items due to a poor harvest as a result of drought.
Month-on-month (m/m) food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation rate stood at 0.40 % in October 2016, gaining 0.46 percentage points on September's -0.06 %.
On the other hand, m/m non-food inflation rate stood at -0.05 %, gaining 0.29 percentage points on the September 2016 rate of -0.34%.
The consumer price index for the month ending October 2016 stood at 96.10, compared to 96.01 in September 2016 and 97.02 in October 2015.
