Harare - Zimbabwe's year-on-year rate of inflation fell 21 percent to 599 percent in December, the first slow-down in 18 months in the the rate at which the country's cost of living is skyrocketing, according to official figures released in Harare on Tuesday.
The state's Central Statistical Office reported that the annual rate dropped from 619,5 percent in November to 598,7 in December. Measured month-on-month, the increase slowed from a record 33 percent in November to 11 percent in December.
The reported trend surprised economists, who pointed out that even the government had forecast inflation would rise to 700 percent in the first quarter of this year, while some private institutions predicted it would break the thousand percent barrier by the end of March.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in accelerating crisis for the last four years, and the country has the fastest shrinking gross domestic product in the world - 40 percent in four years - and the highest inflation.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper claimed the lower rate was a sign that a crackdown by the central bank "has started to pay dividends".
However, economists pointed out that the new measures, to control rampant speculation and fraud in the financial sector and introducing foreign currency auctions, had been announced by new reserve bank governor Gideon Gono only in mid-December, and some of the key measures came into effect in January.
"I expected that the rate would go up 25 percent on the previous month," said economist John Robertson who issues monthly analyses of inflation.
"I can't believe that municipal rates and rents (increased by over 500 percent) have been included in these figures. It looks as if there has been a bit of doctoring. The bulletin is different from the usual issue."
Economists blame the crisis on corruption, reckless and arbitrary economic policy and a regime of violent repression under Mugabe's rule, particularly in the last four years when a campaign of lawless seizures of white-owned land wrecked the country's agricultural industry, formerly regarded as "the breadbasket of Africa".
"At best, this is a blip on the screen," said a senior banking executive who asked not to be named.
"The government has done nothing about the macro-economic fundamentals that are driving this collapse, and the multilateral institutions are not going to touch Zimbabwe while this kind of regime is in control." - Sapa