Harare – Zimbabwe’s annual rate of inflation for June gained 0.20 percentage points on the May rate of 2.71 percent to 2.91 percent, latest official data from Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) show.

Zimstat said this means prices as measured by the all items consumer price index (CPI) increased by an average of 2.91 percent in the 12 months to June 2018.

“The year on year Food and Non Alcoholic beverages inflation prone to transitory shocks stood at 5.12 percent whilst the Non-Food inflation rate was 1.88 percent,” said Zimstat.

However, the month on month inflation rate in June 2018 was -0.05 percent shedding 0.08 percentage points on the May 2018 rate of 0.03 percent.

“This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI decreased by an average rate of -0.05 percent from May 2018 to June 2018,” said Zimstat.

Zimstat noted that the month-on-month Food and Non Alcoholic beverages inflation rate stood at -0.23 percent in June 2018, shedding 0.25 percentage points on the May 2018 rate of 0.02 percent.

Additionally, the month-on-month non-food inflation rate stood at 0.04 percent, gaining 0.01 percentage points on the May 2018 rate of 0.03 percent.

NKC Research, back in April advised that the country’s inflation data should be taken with a pinch of salt as black market premiums on foreign currency are not factored in.

“When new Zimbabwe inflation data gets released, it needs to be interpreted with caution since there appears to be deeper underlying factors at play within the country’s inflation environment,” the equities firm said.

Zimbabwe has recently suffered from the impact of multi-tier pricing, currency premiums and speculative prices rises, which threatened to sustain pressure on inflation.

Zimstat said the CPI for the month ending June 2018 stood at 99.68 compared to 99.72 in May 2018 and 96.86 in June 2017.

As Zimbabwe battled seemingly spates of prices increases last year, the International Monetary Fund projected the annual rate would hit 7 percent by December, 2017 and 9,5 percent end of 2018.

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