HARARE, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s inflation rate, already the highest in the world, rose to a new peak of nearly 8,000 percent last month, figures released by the central statistics bureau showed on Wednesday. “The year-on-year inflation rate in September 2007 was 7,892.1 percent, gaining 1,389.3 percentage points on the August rate of 6,592.8 percent,” the bureau said in a statement.
The month-on-month rate of inflation was 38.7 percent, the CSO added.
The new rise reverses a slight fall in the monthly rate that was recorded in September and punctures hopes by government that it was beginning to tame what central bank governor Gideon Gono has termed the country’s “economic HIV”. .