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Zim reviews inflation calculation
News 24
June 27, 2007

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_2137648,00.html

Zimbabwe is reviewing how it calculates inflation and will delay the release of May data, a government official said on Wednesday, as the country grapples with hyper-inflation. President Robert Mugabe's government has declared the country's galloping inflation - put at more than 3 700% in April - as its number-one enemy. But prices continue to rise relentlessly, jumping by as much as 300% in the past week alone after the local currency tumbled.

Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the Central Statistical Office, said May's figure, predicted by economists to top 4 000%, would not be released soon and the agency was reviewing the consumer price basket it uses to calculate the data. "There has been criticism of our basket," Nyoni said, declining to give details. "As technical people we might move in a different direction if we find that we have issued data that has misled the public. But we are looking at whether there is any justification in the criticism," said Nyoni. Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, has in the past said it might be necessary to change the components of the consumer price basket. Independent economists have interpreted this as indicating government displeasure with the sky-high figures. Nyoni said: "It's safe to say that the release of the (May) figures is somewhat indefinite."

Zimbabwe's inflation is the highest in the world, reflecting a deep economic crisis mainly blamed on Mugabe's policies, such as his seizure of white-owned farms for blacks. Early this month, the government promised to reduce monthly inflation to below 25% by the end of the year after signing a price and wage protocol with business and labour. But skyrocketing prices in the past week have dashed that hope. On Tuesday, Mugabe's government issued a directive that businesses must revert to the prices quoted on June 18 while a commission investigates whether the recent jump was justified. Some stores have responded by withdrawing their products from the shelves while most bakers stopped producing bread. Mugabe, who denies charges of mismanaging the economy, on Wednesday threatened to nationalise all companies after accusing business executives of hiking prices as part of a Western campaign to topple his government.

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