Zimbabwe's inflation slows to 1 184%

Zimbabwe's inflation slows to 1 184%

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation slowed slightly to 1,184.6 percent in June, but remained high enough to dampen any hope of a quick economic recovery, official figures showed on Monday.

President Robert Mugabe's government has branded Zimbabwe's inflation rate -- which is the highest in the world -- its chief enemy as it battles an 8-year recession which analysts say is stoking social tensions.

The country's worst economic crisis since independence in 1980 is being marked by shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food, along with rising unemployment and deepening poverty.

Compared to the previous month Zimbabwe's consumer price index climbed by 17.3 percent compared with a 28 percent leap in May, when prices rose on almost a daily basis, the data from the Central Statistics Office showed.

Central bank governor Gideo Gono aims to slow inflation to 400 percent by December this year, reining it in to less than 50 percent by June 2007.

In an interview with Reuters last week he said that the country's struggling economy was set for a "dramatic" recovery in the next two to three years on the back of growth in mining and commercial farming.

But the central bank has consistently missed its inflation targets over the last two years. Analysts say the government's latest plan to salvage the economy looks set to fail and predict inflation could scale 1,800 percent by year-end - Reuters
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