"The time has come for some law, and this is practised in some countries, which says inflation should not be allowed to exceed a certain percentage and allow the central bank to pursue that objective," Tsumba said at the weekend.

"If we do that, we would ensure that the rate of inflation would remain low and interest rates remain low. It is important for us to begin to think along these lines," Tsumba at a meeting to celebrate President Robert Mugabe's 75h birthday.

Tsumba was unavailable for further comment on Monday.

Neighbouring South Africa, Zimbabwe's largest trading partner in the world, is also discussing introducing inflation targetting.

Zimbabwe's consumer inflation was at 44.2 per cent in the year to January, down 2.4 percentage points from the five year record high of 46.6 per cent inDecember.

Economists say inflation is likely to remain above 40per cent during the first half of the year due to recent increases in the price of basic food commodities and expected increases in fuel and energy prices.

Tsumba said inflation would stay over 30 per cent till the end of the year and the Reserve Bank would continue using monetary policy to check it in the absence of fiscal support.

He said inflation had risen by 750 per cent in the last decade, eroding incomes and worsening poverty among the country's 12 million people.Zimbabwe's inflation has been blamed on high government spending and was last year was fuelled by the 50 per cent collapse of the local currency against the US dollar.