Posted on 10/09/2008 2:21:38 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation soared to 231 million per cent in July, confirming growing hardship in the southern African country, a state newspaper reported today citing official statistics.
The Herald newspaper said the annual rate of inflation gained 219.8 million per cent, up from the June rate of 11.2 million per cent, adding that it was "driven faster by food prices".
"The month-on-month rate rose 1760.9 percentage points on the June rate of 839.3 per cent to 2600.2 per cent," the newspaper quoted a statement from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) as saying.
Bread and cereals were the main drivers, the statement said.
Bread prices have been pushed up by wheat shortages as bakers are relying on imports, the newspaper said.
Once hailed as a model economy and a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe's fortunes have nosedived since 2000 when veteran ruler Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms and handed them over to landless blacks, often with no farming skills.
But the Government blames the country's economic meltdown on sanctions imposed by Britain and its allies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
That’s racist. Consider your house first on the list for government confiscation come November 5th.
One of ........none.
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Any inflation rate above 100 million percent is serious.
hugh and series.
Take a look into our future if Obama is elected.
I’ve love to get a few of those billion notes, but I know if I buy, it’s ultimately going to end up in the hands of Mugabe. The guy that sold them will trade my dollars to get more Zim toilet paper, and Mugabe will get another 14 seconds in office.
They need the messiah, HusseinO Jr’s more than we do.. Let’s send him there!
Is the inflation 27x/month, or 2,310,000x/year? The former number is a LOT bigger (about 15 QUINTILLION percent)--If things keep going at that rate, matching the purchasing power of today's largest bank note, Zim$500,000,000 (less than US$1.00) would in a year require Zim$75,047,317,648,499,560,500,000,000).
On the other hand, to put things in perspective, an inflation rate of 2,310,000x/year would only be about 4% per day, and even an inflation rate of 27x/month would only be about 11.5%/day. Not a totally impossible amount to handle in a day-to-day semi-barter economy, but of course totally impossible for any meaningful business.
On the other hand, if this inflation keeps up, there won't be enough room on the currency for all the zeroes. Can you imagine a 500 septillion dollar note (which, a year from now, would be worth less than $1)?
How do you figure 7% per second? Depending upon which inflation figure in the article is accurate, the rate would be 4% or 11.5% per day. Worthless for any long-term holding, but if someone collects his wages and spends them within a day or two, they would still have the vast majority of their value.
If the value of currency were diminishing at a rate of 7% per hour, that would translate into 507%/day, 8,639,222%/week, or 322,793,860,257,058,127,513,406%/month. A figure of 7% per second would seem nonsensical.
Check your math.
What are you objecting to? I'll admit that in computing a diminishment of 7% per hour, I actually computed a 7% increase in the amount of currency required for each dollar of purchasing power (it should have been 7.5%). What else do you object to?
Note that if asset increases by a factor of (1+r) in each interval, its value after 'y' intervals will be (1+r)^x times its original value. The formula applies even whether 'x' is greater or less than one.
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