November inflation slides to -1.09 percent

16 December 2016

Zimbabwe’s year on year inflation rate for November fell 0.14 percentage points to -1.09 percent, the national statistics agency reported on Thursday.

Month on month the rate in November was 0.02 percent, shedding 0.07 percentage points on the October 2016 rate of 0.09 percent, Zimstat said.

In his national budget for 2017, Finance Minister has projected inflation to average 1.1 percent on an annualised basis.

Zimbabwe, which experienced the 21st century’s only hyperinflation case, with inflation peaking at 500 billion percent in December 2008, managed to tame the scourge when it unofficially dollarised in 2009.

However, the recent introduction of a local ‘bond note’currency, pegged to the United States dollar, has stoked fears of a return to hyperinflation.

Introduced on November 28, with the introduction of $17 million worth of ‘bond notes’in addition to about $11 million worth of ‘bond coins,’ the currency has, however managed to hold its value so far, with the central bank pursuing a conservative approach in injecting the bills into the economy.

–The source