Zimbabwe’s annual inflation has risen above 250% becoming its highest level for a year and a half as the citizens continue to groan under hardship.
With inflation quadrupling since February, many Zimbabweans are struggling to cope.
The authorities blame the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the high global prices on fuel, grain and fertiliser.
A local shortage of American dollars to pay for imports has also contributed to the rising cost of basic goods and services.
Read Also: Inflation Rate Soars To Five-Year High At 18.60% In Nigeria
On Monday the central bank released gold coins onto the market in an attempt to stem inflation by curbing the appetite for US dollars.
Surging inflation and severe meltdowns in the United States and China on Tuesday pushed the International Monetary Fund, IMF to downgrade its outlook for the global economy this year and next, while giving an even grimmer assessment of what may lie ahead.
‘The outlook has darkened significantly since April,’ said IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. ‘The world may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession, only two years after the last one.’
‘The world’s three largest economies, the United States, China, and the euro area are stalling with important consequences for the global outlook,’ he said at a briefing.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund cut the 2022 global GDP estimate to 3.2 percent, four-tenths of a point lower than the April forecast, and about half the rate seen last year.
Africa Today News, New York reports that last year’s ‘tentative recovery’ from the pandemic downturn “has been followed by increasingly gloomy developments in 2022 as risks began to materialize,” the report said.
‘Several shocks have hit a world economy already weakened by the pandemic,” including the war in Ukraine which has driven up global prices for food and energy, prompting central banks to raise interest rates sharply, the IMF said.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns and a worsening real estate crisis have hindered economic activity in China, while the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes are slowing US growth sharply.