Policy monitor: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe holds at 35% with inflation at 25.1%

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's benchmark policy rate stands at 35%, unchanged at its most recent review. This briefing sets out the data behind the stance, drawn from CBAN's Zimbabwe dataset.

Headline consumer price inflation is running at 25.1% year on year in the latest reading tracked by CBAN, down from 28.6% in the prior reading. That puts the real policy rate — the benchmark rate minus headline inflation — at roughly 9.9 percentage points, a restrictive setting by historical standards.

On the currency side, the Zimbabwe gold trades near 26.9 per US dollar, down 4.2% since the start of the year. Gross official reserves stand at roughly $0.9 billion. Exchange-rate pass-through into consumer prices is one of the strongest inflation channels in most African economies, which is why these two indicators move together in policy deliberations.

The RBZ's statutory mandate: Restore price and currency stability under the gold-backed ZiG framework introduced in April 2024.

The wider economy is growing at around 2% a year on the estimates CBAN tracks, with nominal output of about $35 billion. Growth, inflation and the exchange rate form the three-way trade-off every Monetary Policy Committee weighs.

The next scheduled monetary policy decision is 4 September 2026. CBAN tracks every African MPC date in the economic calendar, and this briefing is refreshed as new official data is released.