Saturday, July 19, 2008

What would you do with 100 billion dollars?

Posted: 07:08 AM ET

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe’s troubled central bank introduced new $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.

The new bills, officially come into circulation Monday but they on already on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday.

As high as they are, though, the new bills still aren’t enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can only buy four oranges.

Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since its independence from Great Britain in 1980, with the official inflation rate now at 2.2 million percent.

1 comment:

Victor said...

And the sad thing is that that is not even the real rate, only the "company line." I've heard it is possibly four times higher. Still under the record for the highest hyperinflation in the history of money. But they may not beat the record if there is any hope with this 2-week negotiations for the terms of the government of national unity.