Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said that he expects runaway inflation to fall by the end of this year or the beginning of next year.
Ncube said this while responding to questions from members of the Portfolio Committee on Budget and Finance in Parliament on Monday. Said Ncube:
. . . of course, I know what is ravaging everyone at the moment, which is inflation.
By end of year or beginning of next year, we expect inflation to drop and also our expectations are that our interbank market will become more of the reference point in the sourcing of currency as opposed to the parallel market which is currently driving inflation.
While official figures show that inflation rose to 75,86 per cent in April, the prices of goods and services have continued to gallop exponentially.
The price increases are largely a result of the loss in value of the local currency, RTGS dollar, against the US dollar on the parallel market, with retailers continuously increasing prices in line with the prevailing rate.