Zimbabwe's inflation shoots up to 1 204%

• Gono hits back at 'devious' Murerwa

• Full text of Gono's Project Sunrise review

• Zimbabweans count losses after currency switch

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation rate accelerated to 1,204.6 percent in August -- a new record --from 993.6 percent in July, suggesting the country was losing the battle against soaring prices, official data showed on Friday.

President Robert Mugabe has singled out the country's inflation, the highest in the world, as the biggest stumbling block to recovery from an 8-year-old economic recession critics blame on government mismanagement.

The Central Statistical Office (CSO) said that, on a monthly basis, Zimbabwe's consumer price index rose by 29.2 percent after a 25.1 percent increase in July.

The figures are normally released earlier in the month, but officials said on Monday the August publication was delayed as statisticians had failed to get enough money for price surveys due to problems stemming from the introduction of new banknotes.

Old bank notes were phased out for a newly denominated currency, to ease the burden on consumers forced to carry large bags of money on shopping trips.

Rampaging inflation has been one of the main hallmarks of an economic meltdown also marked by chronic shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food, rising unemployment and grinding poverty.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies mismanaging the economy and accuses the West of engaging in economic sabotage to punish him for his seizures of white-owned commercial farms for blacks. - Reuters

JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com