Zimbabwe received the lowest inflation amongst the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in September this year according to the bloc’s Harmonised Consumer Price Indices (HCPI) news release.
The country records the lowest Inflation in SADC despite price hikes that took place during the month of September and are still continuing.
“On the lower end Zimbabwe registered lowest inflation rate among of 0.7% for September 2017 among the Member States,” states the news release.
The annual inflation rates for the rest of the other Member States ranged between 2.6% and 8.2% reported according to HCPI. In September which Zimbabwe received the lowest inflation panic buying with sudden price hikes hit the country’s retail outlets
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Sifelani Jabangwe said that this happened when the stocks were low but adequate for normal consumption. The government of the day blamed the social media for the price hikes saying that the internet is causing “alarm and despondency” therefore there is need regulation.
Ministry of Industry and Commerce is implementing the price control to manage sudden hikes from happening again.
The HCPL press release shows that eleven SADC Member States recorded annual rates below the regional average rate of 10.2% for September whilst four other countries rated below.
“Most SADC Member States registered increases in the month on month inflation rate in September 2017, with the exception of Botswana, Mauritius and Seychelles registering decreases of 0.2%, 0.6% and 0.1% respectively,” the release says.
“The highest increase was registered by Angola (3.1%) followed by DRC (2.6%)”.
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation gained 0.64% in September to 0.78% from 0.14% according to the Daily News. HCPI provides updates up to September on HCPI implementation for SADC and the Member States. SADC releases the seventy-third issue of its SADC HCPI initiative.
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