Right now, the fifty million dollar bank note in Zimbabwe is not worth the paper it is printed on, though it is a valid legal tender! One US dollar recently was worth about 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (give or take a few billion!).
Amid Zimbabwe's mind-boggling hyper inflation, a new 100 billion dollar bank note has more value as a novelty item on eBay than on the streets of the capital.
The note, launched this week, is worth enough to buy a loaf of bread — if you can find one on Zimbabwe's depleted store shelves. Meanwhile on eBay, the bill was on offer for nearly US$80.
Notes in the millions of dollars are useful only as toilet paper and it's cheaper to light a fire with low denomination bills than with newspaper.
House prices and lottery prizes are quoted in quadrillions — that's with 15 zeros. Zimbabweans says it's only a matter of time before big ticket items will be priced in the quintillions, which have 18 zeros.
Official inflation is quoted at 2.2 million percent but independent finance houses say it's closer to 12.5 million percent.
A cup of coffee at a government-owned five-star hotel was 130 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or US$5.30 this week. A waitress at the hotel said she earns 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars, US$4 a month.
The daily grind for Zimbabweans to survive in the economic meltdown has won them a rating as the world's unhappiest people in the World Values Survey of the Michigan Institute for Social Research.
The worst inflation was recorded in Yugoslavia in 1990s, where 500 billion Dinara bank note had to be printed to deal with the inflation!
I read some where that during peak inflation in Argentina, a restaurant posted the sign "prices are subject to change during the meal".
Most of the stories come with a moral. On reading news like this, I feel less inclined to complain about petty things like noisy office neighbor or rising gas prices.
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