(NEWZIMBABWE) Inflation slows to 2.76 percent in March
15/04/2013 00:00:00
by Roman Moyo
ZIMBABWE’S National Statistics Agency (Zimstats) has announced that the inflation rate shed 0.22 percentage points on the February figure of 2.98 percent to 2.76 percent in March.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the drop was due to a decline in the value of South Africa's rand against the dollar, making Zimbabwe's imports from its giant neighbour much cheaper.
Zimbabwe uses a mixture of the dollar and rand, having scrapped its own currency in 2009 to end years of hyperinflation.
Zimstats said the year-on-year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 4.18 percent while the non-food inflation rate was 2.04 percent.
The monthly food and beverages rate of inflation for March 2013 stood at 0.32 percent, shedding 1.08 percentage points on the February rate of 1.40 percent.
Month-on-month non-food inflation was pegged at 0.15 percent, shedding 0.57 percentage points on the February rate of 0.72 percent.
The month-on-month inflation rate in March 2013 shed 0.74 percentage points from February’s figure of 0.95 percent to close at 0.21 percent.
This means prices, as measured by the all-items consumer price index, increased by an average of 2.76 percentage points between March 2012 and March 2013.
The consumer price index for the month ending March 2013 stood at 101.2 compared with 101.0 in February 2013 and 98.5 in March 2012.
"The implementation of COICOP classification is also part of the harmonisation project of consumer price indices in different regions, such as Sadc, as all member states are supposed to adopt the new procedure to enable inter-country comparisons of the Consumer Price Index and the rate of inflation," said ZimStat.
Labels: INFLATION, ZIMSTATS
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Zimbabwe holds census trial run
25/08/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE government is conducting census trial runs in selected areas in all the country’s 10 provinces ahead of the 2012 population count. Officials said the exercise, which began on August 18 and runs until August 28, is designed to “test various census instruments”.
The programme, being run by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat), will identify problems with the system which should be fixed by this time next year when the census is held.
Zimstat, previously known as the Central Statistical Office, has been conducting a census every 10 years since 1982. The last count in 2002 put Zimbabwe’s total population at slightly over 12 million.
Zimstat Census Manager Washington Mateta said: “People should get ready to be counted. We want to appeal to people to minimise movement next year during the same period so that it becomes easier for enumerators to count everyone and that we get reliable statistics.”
The pilot census programme, he said, was being conducted by 100 enumerators and 20 supervisors – all seconded by government departments.
“We are doing exactly what we will be doing next year and we urge people to cooperate. Some enumeration areas are almost through as we test census instruments which include questionnaires, enumeration methods, manuals, data processing methods as well as logistics and administrative arrangements for the main census,” said Mateta.
Zimstat picked two wards in every province except Bulawayo and Harare – one urban and one rural.
Analysts expect the next census to show either a drop in population growth or stagnation after a political and economic crisis drove more than a million Zimbabweans out of the country over the last decade.
Labels: CENSUS, ZIMBABWE, ZIMSTATS
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Inflation eases to 3.6 percent
by Staff Reporter
16/11/2010 00:00:00
INFLATION slowed to 3.6 percent year-on-year in October compared with 4.2 percent in September, the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (Zimstats) said on Tuesday. Zimstats figures showed that falling rentals, utility charges, medical drugs and alcoholic beverages prices drove annual inflation lower.
On a month-on-month basis, inflation quickened slightly to 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent in September. Zimstats attributed the rise in monthly inflation to higher prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages.
A firming Rand in neighbouring South Africa has pushed up prices in Zimbabwe. The country still relies on imports from South Africa as local manufacturers struggled to recover from a decade-long economic crisis.
According to Zimstats family of five now requires at least 462 dollars a month to buy food and non-food items.
However, most workers earn an average salary of 200 dollars a month, and unemployment remains high.
Zimbabwe’s inflation has fallen dramatically over the last two years the last two years after the coalition government ditched the virtually worthless Zimbabwe opting for more stable foreign currencies.
The country’s economy has over the last two years experienced a laboured recovery and both local experts and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expect growth to inch towards ten percent by year-end.
Labels: INFLATION, ZIMBABWE, ZIMSTATS
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