INFLATION IN ZIMBABWE SURGES TO TRIPLE DIGITS

The skewed exchange rate also fueled inflation, which reached a whopping 132% last month.

Eyewitness News 

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe's rate of annual inflation surged to triple digits, making life a misery for many people.

The skewed exchange rate also fueled inflation, which reached a whopping 132% last month.

Basic goods have skyrocketed and prices in shops have been on an upward spiral.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said foreign and local contractors involved in big projects like building dams and rehabilitating roads were being paid half their money in US dollars and the other half in Zimbabwe dollars.

Ncube said staggering Zimbabwe dollar payments to them would prevent large sums of local money finding its way onto the black market, disrupting exchange rates and fuelling inflation.

The Zimbabwe dollar now currently trades at 308 to the US dollar, but it's still close to 500 dollars on the widely-used parallel market.

This is pushing up prices in shops beyond the reach of most people.

In May, President Emmerson Mnangagwa issued a directive, which was later reversed, to ban all bank lending so as to squeeze black market foreign currency trades.