And to think we here were impressed by all those zeroes when Zimbabwe began circulating a $50,000,000 bank note back in April as inflation rates topped 164,900%. Ha! Turns out they were just getting the zero machine warmed up.
Now, the country's central bank introduced a new, higher-value $100,000,000,000 bill in an attempt to curb inflation rates that have spiralled into the stratosphere, clocked at 2,000,000% and climbing .
So what does $100,000,000,000 bill get you in Zimbabwe these days? The answer, predictably, is not much — according to Reuters, a single egg in Harare now costs $35-billion. Haggle the vendor down $5-billion, and you've got yourself three eggs in exchange for the world's largest bank note in circulation.
As bad as things are, however, Zimbabwe's economic crisis is still a miles away from taking a place alongside history's worst cases of hyperinflation. As we pointed out in our April post on the economic phenomenon, that crown still belongs to post-WWII Hungary, where at its peak the rate of inflation was 4.19 quintillion percent. At that point, you might as well start paying for things with hugs.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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