Zimbabwe inflation shoots to 585 percent

Zimbabwe inflation shoots to 585 percent

• 2005 an 'agonising' year for Zimbabweans

• Murerwa unveils tax cuts, predicts growth

• Humble bicycle drives up Zimbabwe inflation

• Zim dollar plunges 66% on interbank market

• Zimbabwe to have new currency next year

• Gono unveils new economic reforms

• Gono says Zim in 'darkest hour before dawn'

• Zimbabwe's inflation shoots to 360 percent

• Zimbabwe: living in a lunatic asylum

• Zimbabwe dollar falls to all time low

• Zimbabwe crisis to worsen - analysts

• Inflation shoots up, again

• Murerwa wants end to price controls

• Zim inflation surges by 90 percent

• Murerwa slashes ministerial budgets

• Top businessman Naran dies

• SA approves US$1bn credit line for Zim

• RBZ devalues Zim dollar by 40 percent

• Zimbabwe faces economic meltdown

• Gono's economic plan crumbles as inflation shoots up

• Patrick Mlambo: A 100 reasons why Gono should resign

• Gono wants white farmers back

• Central back chief admits failure

• Gono revises inflation target 100 percent upwards

• Gono's 'sleepless nights' over inflation

• Gono fighting a losing battle

• Gono, the Zimbabwean Napoleon

• Patrick Mlambo: The small minds in charge of our economy

• Chido Makunike: Overcoming the 'Messiah Complex'

• Zimbabwe dollar depreciates by 4 percent

• Inflation accelerates once again

• Gono predicts inflation to fall to 20%

• Zim fools no-one with 9% unemployment claim

• Zim claims on lowered inflation unconvincing

• House prices bite Zimbabwe's poor

• RBZ cautions against paying political prisoners

• $200bln windfall for ex-political prisoners

• Zimbabwe's inflation seen dipping to 160%

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation rate quickened to 585.8 percent in December from 502.4 percent in November, fanned mainly by higher prices for haircuts, bicycles and medicine, official data showed on Tuesday.

But for 2005 as a whole, the consumer price index rose by an average 182 percent, slowing sharply from 350 percent in 2004, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said.

Zimbabwe has suffered rampaging inflation during six years of recession. Severe shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food have been widely blamed on government mismanagement.

Price pressures have been fuelled by a sliding Zimbabwe dollar, which dramatically boosted the cost of imports after depreciating by about 93 percent against the greenback in 2005.

Prices for bicycles -- a growing form of transport after chronic fuel shortages grounded many vehicles -- rose by an annual rate of 2,240.5 percent in December, while fees charged by hairdressing salons rose by 2,369.2 percent, the CSO said.

Costs for medicine climbed by 1,827.7 percent versus the same month last year while postal costs rose by 1,243.7 percent.

Soaring inflation has hit Zimbabwe's workers the hardest as their earnings lag well behind sharp price increases.

On Tuesday 26-year-old Tatenda Manungo, who sells airtime recharge cards for mobile phones in central Harare, said he had lost hope of seeing prices ever stabilising, let alone fall.

"At this rate I think even a thousand percent inflation is now possible. We are suffering all the way, this will not end," Manungo told Reuters.

On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose by 18.3 percent from 27 percent the previous month, the data showed.

The CSO said an average family of five now required Z$17,263,900 every month to purchase food and other basics for them not to be deemed poor.

This is far higher than the average monthly income for the country's workers which labour unions put at just 3 million Zimbabwe dollars.

President Robert Mugabe's government has branded inflation the country's number one enemy but analysts said the figure could rise to 2004 levels when it peaked at 622.8 percent, if agricultural production remained low.

"What would be key would be the outcome of the 2005-2006 agriculture season but already we have seen farmers facing many challenges which could hit production," James Joma, a Harare based economist said.

Mugabe denies charges that his policies, especially the seizures of land from white commercial farmers, are responsible for the economic crisis. He maintains that the economy has been sabotaged by Western powers opposed to the seizures - Reuters

$1=89,621 Zimbabwe dollars
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com