By Dean Jombo
The suspension of the annual inflation publication will leave space for agencies to manipulate the inflation data.
In an interview, Economic Analyst Fanuel Hazvina told Classic263 that the publication on month inflation figures which was recently suspended by the Finance an Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube will give space for unofficial agencies to publish their own inflation statistics.
‘The only problem with the suspension of the annual inflation publication is that there will be agencies who will start publishing unofficial inflation statistics’ said Hazvina.
Despite the suspension of the publication of annual inflation figures Hazvina noted that some agencies have already started publishing their inflation figures which are misleading and are likely to cause chaos in the market.
‘Some agencies have already started publishing their own figures because of the gap which was created by the suspension of the annual inflation publication,’he said.
In his Midterm fiscal policy review statement, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube suspended the publication of annual inflation data.
Professor Ncube said the publication will only resume in February 2020 when all distorted data caused by the adoption of the new currency has been restored. Ncube also urged marketers to rely more on month on month inflation publication as a gauge for price control.
‘Lets rely on the month on month publication to avoid confusion in the market’ Ncube said
The year on year inflation represents a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.