International: A worthless currency; Zimbabwe
International: A worthless currency; zimbabwe. (2008, Jul 19). The Economist, 388 Retrieved from http://ezproxy.stlcc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/223991711?accountid=14081
With prices doubling every few days, Zimbabweans now spend huge amounts of time and energy preventing their meagre cash resources from completely evaporating. Trying to catch up with galloping hyperinflation, now officially running at 2.2m per cent a year and at least four times faster in reality, the central bank has been printing ever bigger denominations. But it is outrun by galloping prices. Zimbabweans spend their local dollars as fast as possible or change them into hard currency on the black market. With a strict daily limit (currently less than $1.40) on bank withdrawals, people shun banks as much as possible and are returning to a cash economy. Petrol and rents are now charged mainly in American dollars or South African rand, but since some landlords have been taken to court, rents are increasingly often paid for in groceries. John Robertson, a local economist, reckons that the informal economy has probably become larger than the formal one. Zimbabwe holds the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world today that is suffering from hyperinflation: that is, prices are increasing by more than 50% a month.