Zimbabwe’s inflation soars to 131.7%

Zimbabwe’s inflation price jumped to 131.7 percent in May, the records workplace stated Wednesday, as fallout from the Ukraine battle hit an already battered financial system.

Inflation reached triple digits for the first time because June’s ultimate year with fees for cooking oil and bread jumped higher due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The government last week tried to tamp down prices by suspending import duty on basic commodities like cooking oil, rice, and flour.

Inflation was already at 96.4 percent in April, the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency said in a statement.

A foreign currency shortage has left local companies battling to buy supplies from overseas to produce goods in Zimbabwe.

The war in Ukraine has cut off a key wheat supplier to Zimbabwe and reduced supplies of farm chemicals for local crops.

Rising prices revive memories of hyperinflation seen more than a decade ago when inflation spiraled so far out of control that the central bank in 2008 issued a 100-trillion-dollar note, which has become a collectors’ item.

The authorities then ditched the nearby forex and adopted the USA greenback and the South African rand as criminal gentle.

But in 2019 the authorities reintroduced the Zimbabwean dollar, which is already swiftly declining in price.