Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (Zimstat) said that the consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation hits 540 .16 % (year-on-year) in February 2020.
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In its inflation report for February 2020 released on Monday, the agency explained that on a month-on-month basis, prices were up 13.52 % during the same period compared to 2.23 % during January 2020.
Zimbabwe resumed publishing annual consumer price data it suspended last year in June when inflation at 176%.
The local currency has fallen from parity against the US dollar a year ago, to around 18 Zimbabwean dollars (ZWL) per greenback although on the black market the rate is over 30.
Zimbabweans wary as dollarisation decade ends
On the streets of Harare, locals say they’re worried about a decision to make Zimbabwe’s interim currency its sole legal tender.
In February 2019 Zimbabwe launched currency reforms including reintroducing the local currency and banning the use of the US dollar in a bid to solve a chronic monetary crisis.
The US dollar had been the national currency since 2009 when the country trashed its own worthless currency when hyperinflation reached 500 billion percent.
The latest inflation figures are stoking fears of a return of the kind of hyperinflation that wiped out savings 10 years ago when the economy collapsed and prices of goods and services skyrocketed everyday.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, on taking over from long-time ruler Robert Mugabe, promised to revive the economy.
But nearly two years later, the economy is floundering with many goods including fuel, medicines, and the staple cornmeal in short supply and many Zimbabweans saying they are worse off than they were under Mugabe.
