Zimbabwe introduces 100-billion-dollar note: Hyperinflation drives country's currency through roof

AFP, via Yahoo!:



Zimbabwe introduces 100-billion-dollar note
Sat Jul 19, 1:45 PM ET



HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe, grappling with a record 2.2 million percent inflation, has introduced a new 100-billion-dollar bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages, the central bank said Saturday.

The new note will go into circulation on Monday, the bank said in a statement cited by state media, joining about half a dozen new high denomination notes already issued this year.

In January, a 10-million-dollar note was issued, then a 50-million-dollar note in April. In May, notes for 100 million and 250 million dollars were issued, swiftly followed by those for five billion, 25 billion and 50 billion.

The southern African nation, currently gripped by a post-election crisis, has been ravaged by hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 percent in February to 2.2 million in June.

Independent economists however believe the official inflation figure is grossly understated, estimating it could be running between 10 million and 15 million percent.

Zimbabwe's chronic economic crisis has left at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages of basic goods in shops.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080719/bs_afp/zimbabweeconomyinflation_080719174524

You just can't wrap your thinking around something like that.

It's sad to watch this country go into the toilet like it is under this evil dictator.

absolutely sickening.

:scared:

The dollar was $1.67 to the German Mark, right before the Euro. Now, it's almost the opposite.

Conservative economics is BS and corrupt.

Time to give up on paper money and revert to things of real value as a medium of exchange. Anyone know the exchange rate between bottles of beer and rolls of toilet paper? :shrug: