Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Ncube
said Government has not banned calculations of annual inflation rate but the
actualities would be determined using the monthly inflation figures.
He said accounting rules allowed the use of such a
methodology and said the previous methodology was inconsistent owing to
variances of currencies that applied in the previous year.
Prof Ncube said this while fielding questions from
journalists during a media briefing that was held in Harare last Friday. “I did not ban inflation
figures. We said the year on year on inflation, the methodology we were using
was inconsistent because the current regimes were different. We were comparing
a US dollar regime which is pre-February 2019 to a Zimbabwean dollar post that
date. We have done that before, we are probably the leaders in it in the world,
we did it in 2009, there is nothing new, just wait for two months you will get
the year on year inflation in February,” said Prof Ncube.
“There is month on month inflation and the accounting rules
allow for the use of month on month inflation indices and accountancy knows
this, there is no problem, there is no challenge at all. We expect them
(Zimstart) to do their inflation adjusting accounting on the back of the month
on month inflation.”
Prof Ncube said Government was determined to fulfil
everything that it promised including payment of bonuses for civil servants
this month instead of staggering it up to next month.
Turning to industry, Prof Ncube said Government would allow
industry to borrow money on the back of guarantee from the State.
“We are proposing something new in industry to support that
micro-aspect of industry as a driver of the economy. We are proposing a
guarantee scheme for industry to access credit from financial system on the
back of a Government guarantee. So we are working on the modalities. This is
targeted at retooling and trade financing. Industry is a low hanging fruit, we
want industry that is driven by research from our universities and innovation
hubs. We will also make sure that industry comes closer to our universities for
the research driven industrialisation opportunities.” Herald
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