Zimbabwe inflation tops 1,000%

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate has exceeded 1,000% for the first time, state radio reported today.

The official figure for the 12 months to April 2006 was 1,042.9%, Moffat Nyoni, director of the Government’s Central Statistical Office, was quoted as announcing.

In March the figure was 913%. Figures released by Nyoni’s office showed 21.1% inflation for the month of April alone, fuelled by a 27% increase in the cost of basic foodstuffs, 24.8% in rents, 35.1% in fuels such as petrol and kerosene and 48.1% in motor vehicle and health insurance.

The economy has been in free fall since President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of 5,000 former white-owned commercial farms in February 2000.