Then you could buy 5Â kilos of sugar….
From the BBC: Zimbabwe launches $200,000 note
Zimbabwe is to start circulating a new 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar note, in a bid to tackle the country’s inflation, the highest in the world.
The new note, issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from Wednesday, can buy 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar.
Food and fuel shortages have become common as the government relies more heavily on imports, pushing prices to new heights.
The official annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is more than 4,500%.
In practice, this means the price of a loaf of bread costs 50 times more in cash than it did a year ago.
The new note is worth US$13 at the official exchange rate or $1 on the black market.
President Robert Mugabe’s plan for destroying his country seems to be on track. Of course, Mugabe blames not his own disastrous policies for the current situation in Zimbabwe, where food shortages are becoming all too common, but foreign devils. Unfortunately, Mugabe supporters seem to be unaware, or simply don’t care, that the wounds to the Zimbabwean economy have been all self-inflicted.
The new banknote comes after International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that by the end of 2007, prices will be 1,000 times higher than they were a year earlier, Reuters news agency reports.
“Price controls that are being enforced are likely to exacerbate shortages and ultimately fuel further inflation,” said Bio Tchane, director of the IMF’s Africa department, who described Zimbabwe’s prospects as “bleak”.
You can see it all in Zimbabwe’s future: humanitarian crisis, famine, political instability, waves of refugees, and increasing violence. Some of these have already started, of course, but I’m afraid we haven’t seen the worst of it by a country mile.
