Consumer prices in Zimbabwe rose 0.6% in June from their levels in May, the Central Statistical Office announced Monday, a rate of price increases which if continued for a full 12 months would result in an annual rate of inflation just over 7%.

This data however followed monthly price declines of 1% in May, 1.1% in April, 3% in March, 3.1% in February and 2.3% in January. Despite the increase in prices in June, prices based on official data released by the statistical office have fallen nearly 10% so far in 2009.

This disinflation followed the country's adoption of multiple hard currencies to replace the Zimbabwe dollar which had become worthless amidst inflation which on late 2008 soared to levels conservatively measured in trillions of percent, and fallen out of use.

Economist Prosper Chitambara of the Labor and Economic Research Institute of Zimbabwe told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the price rise last month was mainly driven by fuel, whereas food prices continued to decline.

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