(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s official annual inflation rate was 230% in July, according to John Robertson, an economist based in Harare, but the nation’s statistics office won’t tell you that. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said earlier this month that the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency won’t report year-on-year inflation figures until February 2020 and will only release the monthly moves in the consumer-price index. Less than three years after Zimbabwe had deflation, the economy may be heading back to the hyperinflation of a decade ago after the introduction of a new currency pushed up prices and led to shortages of goods from bread to fuel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rene Vollgraaff in Johannesburg at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Antony Sguazzin, Jacqueline Mackenzie

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