Zimbabwe's annual inflation surged to 256.9 percent in July from 191.6 percent the previous month, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency said Friday.

The month-on-month inflation rate in July stood at 25.6 percent, shedding 5.1 percentage points from the June rate of 30.7 percent.

Zimbabwe experienced inflationary pressure over the past seven months, driven partly by external factors as well as exchange rate volatility. Annual inflation steadily rose from 60.7 percent in January 2022 to 256.9 percent in July.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said Thursday that imported inflation had contributed significantly to domestic inflation through cost-push factors.

In response to rising inflation, the government has introduced various measures including hiking the bank policy rate from 80 percent to 200 percent per annum as well as introducing gold coins to tame rising inflation.