The benchmark interest rate in Zimbabwe was last recorded at 35 percent. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Zimbabwe Interest Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Inflation in Zimbabwe rose to 10.61 percent in 2018, and is projected to jump dramatically to 577.21 percent in 2020. After that, estimates predict a slow decline for now - however, given Zimbabwe’s history of poor monetary policy, including one of the worst instances of hyperinflation, this seems unrealistic.

Inflation history

Inflation depends significantly on economic expectations of it, making it hard to reduce inflation once it has hit higher levels. This happened in Zimbabwe in the years approaching 2008, at the end of which a single U.S. dollar was worth over 2.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars, up from 10,000 Zimbabwe dollars at the start of 2005. This all but destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy, leading to very low gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and a government struggling to finance itself.

The way ahead

In 2009, the Zimbabwean dollar had twelve zeros slashed from the banknotes. This was not enough, and after three decades of rule, former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was removed from power at the end of 2017. Citizens of the country are trying to hold foreign banknotes; they prefer U.S. dollars or euros, but the South African rand is more common. However, the rand’s performance against other currencies has been lackluster in recent years. This underscores the struggle that the Zimbabwean people have to find a stable currency at the moment.