You think you have troubles

Associated Press recently updated the currency figures as Zimbabwe's central bank revealed this month that annual inflation had climbed to 24,470 per cent - by far the highest in the world.

But wait before being shocked. In fact, this ridiculous figure is considered not so bad, because it falls far short of independent estimates of 150,000 per cent.

In its first announcement on official inflation for four months, Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono last Friday said inflation remained "the most devastating macroeconomic imbalance in the country", affecting all sectors of the population.

Early last October, the state Central Statistics Office gave the last official inflation figure at just below 8,000 per cent. Since then, the central bank seemed to lose track of price rises, prompting several independent estimates.

Associated Press reported that Gono criticised independent inflation calculations as "distorted and imprecise wild guesses" that caused damage to business planning and hurt the nation's credibility. He said the figures reflected "actual information".

However, Zimbabweans in Harare were likely to be sceptical of Gono's official inflation rate as they prepared huge piles of money to buy groceries.

For instance, state newspaper The Herald raised its cover price threefold last Friday to 3 million Zimbabwean dollars (60 US cents, or Bt20, at the dominant black-market exchange rate), the third increase since last October.

It represented an increase of more than 200,000 per cent in the price of a single copy of the daily paper since January 2007.

Supermarket cash-register receipts show the price of chicken rose more than 236,000 per cent to 15 million dollars a kilogram in the year between January 2007 and last month.

The smallest increase has been in sugar, which rose only 64,000 per cent.

But the "smallness" of the increase in the sugar price has not boosted the morale of Zimbabweans very much, because independent estimates for overall food inflation are 164,000 per cent.

busdsk@nationgroup.com

The Nation