Zimbabwe’s inflation figures for July are out and we are not in the least bit surprised to learn that inflation continues to climb. According to ZIMSTAT annual inflation stood at 837.53% in July while month on month inflation went up by 3.87% compared to June figures to stand at 35.53%. All this means that the rate at which prices are increasing increased in June.

July2020CPI #ConsumerPriceIndexZW The month on month inflation rate in July 2020 was 35.53% gaining 3.87 percentage points on the June 2020 rate of 31.66% The year on year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of July as measured by all items #CPI stood at 837.53% The #CPI for the month ending July 2020 stood at 1,958.72 compared to 1,445.21 in June 2020 and 208.92 in July 2019.

BlendedCPI_July2020 The month on month inflation rate in July 2020 was 16.65% shedding 12.79 percentage points on the June rate of 29.44%. The year on year inflation rate (annual percentage change) for the month of July 2020 as measured by all items #blendedCPI was at 485.27%. The #blendedCPI for the month ending July 2020 stood at 649.96 compared to 557.19 in June 2020 and 111.05 in July 2019
ZIMSTAT On Twitter

Poverty abounds

More and more people are living in poverty as the economy spirals out of control. The current lockdown is not helping matters either as most people have now been deprived of their livelihood with the majority of the country employed in the informal sector which the government has always treated with indifference and sometimes even disdain.

The Food Poverty Line #FPL for one person in June 2020 was $950.00, while that for an average household of five persons was $4,749.00.
The Total Consumption Poverty Line #TCPL for one person stood at $2,267.00 during the same period (June 2020), while that for an average of five persons per household pegged at $11,334.00
ZIMSTAT on Twitter

To say few households earn $11 334 is an understatement. Most families earn less than half this amount now considering they are barred from returning to work and are not receiving any government grants or aid of any sort. The last time the government proposed grants was when they said they would be handing out a paltry $300 ZWL using complicated formulas. Nobody knows what that meant except that they were not getting aid. To date we have never heard of anyone receiving that money.

Click here to see annual and monthly inflation figures for Zimbabwe since 2018