Zimbabwe's annual inflation for September dropped to 1,023.3 percent, shedding 181.3 percentage points from the August rate, according to the latest statistics announced by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).

The month-on-month inflation rate for September dropped to 14.8 percent from the August rate of 29.2 percent.

CSO acting director Moffat Nyoni attributed the decline in monthly inflation to the fact that the sharp increase recorded in monthly inflation for September last year was not repeated this year.

"September last year had one of the highest increases recorded but that has not been repeated this year and technically that results in the drop of inflation," Nyoni said Tuesday.

Monthly inflation for September 2005 rose sharply to 33.3 percent from 8.3 percent the previous month to become one of the highest increases recorded in the history of the country.

Nyoni said the 1 023.3 percent inflation rate meant that goods and services were about 11 times as expensive in September 2006 as they had been 12 months before.

Year-on-year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation for the month stood at 1,114.2 percent, dropping 2.1 percentage points on the August figure of 1,116.3 percent.

Yearly non-food inflation also declined by 268.2 percentage points to 981.7 percent from the August figure 1,249.9 percent.

Monthly food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation also shed 1. 7 percentage from the August rate of 24.8 percent to 23.1 percent in September 2006.

Non-food inflation stood at 11 percent, dropping 20.4 percentage points from the August figure of 31.4 percent.

Nyoni said paramedical services, the purchase of motorcycles and domestic power recorded the highest increases in prices on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, the items that recorded the highest increases in prices were meat, hair dressing saloons, milk, cheese and eggs.

Postal services, paramedical services and examination fees recorded the lowest increase in prices on a month-on-month basis.

Source: Xinhua