Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation for the month of May increased to 144.4 percent, rising by 15.3 percentage points on the April rate of 129.1 percent, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) has said.

This means that prices of goods as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by an average of 144.4 percent between May 2004 and May this year.

Last month's increase in inflation becomes the third time Zimbabwe has recorded an increase in annual inflation since January last year.

However, the recent reversals in the disinflation trend (also in January and April 2005) seem to have been ignited by the surprise price increases effected by retailers and manufacturers in the post-March 2005 election period.

On the other hand, the month-on-month inflation rate in May also increased to 13.1 percent, gaining by 5.7 percentage points on the April 2005 rate, which stood at 7.4 percent.

This also follows that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average of 13.1 percent from April to May 2005.

At a Press conference held in Harare on Tuesday, CSO acting director Moffat Nyoni attributed the increases to the rise in prices of beverages, rents and rates, meat and vegetables.

Nyoni added that they were going to change the CPI measuring basket starting from next month, which he said was traditional after every five or 10 years, as required by international recommendations.

Source: Xinhua