Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate surged to a record 100 580.2% in January, marking another setback to President Robert Mugabe's efforts to reverse a deep economic slide in the once prosperous African nation.

Mugabe has made the battle against inflation the cornerstone of his government's bid to halt the country's economic meltdown, which many critics blame on mismanagement and his controversial policies, including seizures of white-owned farms.

Last year his government ordered businesses across the country to freeze the price of milk, bread, cooking oil and other basic commodities in a bid to halt runaway price increases that have devastated the lives of millions of Zimbabweans.

But the country's state-run Central Statistical Office (CSO) reported, that annualised inflation rate had risen past the six-figure mark from 66 212.3%in December.

The data came amid a presidential election campaign that sees Mugabe facing the first serious challenge to his rule since coming to power after independence from Britain in 1980.