The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was recently forced to adjust its year on year inflation estimates for this year. The central bank had forecast that inflation would be somewhere between 25% and 35%. Now they anticipate that inflation would be between 35% and 53% instead. Naturally, the governor of the central bank takes no responsibility for this. He instead blames parallel market rates for this change in fortunes.

Developments on the parallel market for foreign exchange are likely to exert further inflationary pressures in the economy.

In view of recent developments, annual inflation is likely to end the year between 35 percent to 53 percent, up from the revised year-end targets of between 25 percent and 35 percent.
J P Mangudya governor of the RBZ

Blaming the black market is part of the government’s unspoken policy of taking no responsibility. They also habitually blame drought and sanctions when the black market is not available as an option. For their part, Zimbabwe’s business community has instead chosen to blame the government over its inconsistent policies for causing mayhem and crippling growth in the economy.

Click here to see current official and unofficial rates

Click here to see inflation rates for Zimbabwe since 2018