Chief statistician Moffat Nyoni said goods used in calculating the average inflation basket were not available in stores across the country and so the figures, usually issued at the beginning of each month, would be delayed.

The official inflation figure was given last month as 7 982%, by far the highest in the world.

"There are too many data gaps," he told the state media.

His office was "now trying to find ways of coming up with the missing figures," the daily Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, reported.

Zimbabwe suffers runaway prices, chronic unemployment and acute shortages. Unofficial estimates say that true inflation based on the government's basket of goods at around 15 000% and that - taking into account a broader range of goods - is closer to 40%000%. The International Monetary Fund has forecast it reaching 100 000% by the end of the year.

Corn meal, bread, meat, cooking oil, sugar and other basic staples used to measure inflation largely disappeared from stores after a government order in June to slash prices of all goods and services by about half. Producers said they could not afford to sell their goods at below the cost of producing them.

About the only meat-based product on the shelves is sausages composed of about one-fourth low grade pork and the rest cereal. A package of six rose thirty-fold in price in the past month, to Zim$20m.

Most scarce products are available in limited quantities on the illegal black market at up to 10 times the government's fixed prices. If inflation was calculated on black market prices alone it would reach the IMF's prediction of at least 100 000%.

Last month, the central bank offered loans to businesses at 25% interest to restore supplies to shops. Interest of about 500% is charged on routine commercial bank loans.

But central bank loans have made little difference to the availability of basic goods so far, store managers say.