The BBC reports on the shocking rate of inflation in Zimbabwe and the huge numbers of zeros on the country’s currency.
The counting of zeros had already become a nightmare for bankers and shoppers before the introduction of the new note – which at the time of writing would buy about two loaves of bread.
So far this year, the country ravaged by hyperinflation has been forced to print 100-million, 250-million and 500-million notes in rapid succession. All of them are now almost worthless.
It has become common now for Zimbabweans to talk of their daily expenses in trillions (one trillion has 12 zeros).
There so sign of this inflation slowing down. Official rates are now quoted at 2,200,000% but independent estimates put that number closer to 20 million percent. What I find historically fascinating is that Zimbabwe holds neither the world record for the highest inflation rate nor the largest denomination bank note. The RBZ issued a $100 billion note just last week. On the topic of historical hyper-inflation, Wikipedia says:
Hungary went through its worst inflation in modern history in 1945-46. Before 1945, the highest denomination was 1,000 pengő. By the end of 1945, it was 10,000,000 pengő. The highest denomination in mid-1946 was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengő. The rate of inflation was 4.19 quintillion (4.19 x 1018) percent.
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