Beyond Inflation: Measuring the Real Cost of Living in Zimbabwe’s Multi-Currency Economy

This paper asks whether the official consumer price indices, exchange rate and poverty lines describe what living actually costs. It covers May 2024 to September 2026 and combines 12,001 audited retail price observations with ZIMSTAT releases and official exchange rates.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">Four findings stand out.

First, ZiG prices roughly doubled (+102%) because the official rate did (ZiG per dollar +98%); converted to dollars they rose only 1.8%, against 17.5% for ZIMSTAT's US-dollar index. Second, matched supermarket essentials did not rise faster than that index; between January 2025 and September 2026 they changed by −5.5%. Third, the rates people pay stayed above the official rate: on all 16 dates between August 2024 and September 2026 with a published informal rate, the informal market charged more ZiG per dollar than the official rate (about a third more through 2025, 18% more in September 2026), and on the one day with till rates supermarkets charged 16%–20% more.