Zimbabwe issues $100 billion notes

[Hum]

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.

source

[tiagosilva29]

I want a googolion of Zimbabwean dollars.

Inflation: (official) 2,200,000% July 2008;

(estimated) 9,030,000% June 20 2008 (CSO data, unofficial)

See Wikipedia, Zimbabwean dollar, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwean_dollar

Edited July 19, 2008 by tiagosilva29

[MR_Candyman]

wow, I never realized their money was worth so little.

[mad_onion]

the situation has become ridiculous now. we should have invaded long ago and dealt with it. the problem with that is, it feels like it would all go wrong again.

[name in use]

Wow, four oranges? Jesus, I thought we were bad..

[Fred Derf Veteran]

One hundred billion Zimbabwe dollars will buy 4 oranges today. Tomorrow it will probably only buy two.

Edited July 20, 2008 by Fred Derf

[ATGC]

The problem: President Robert Mugabe and co.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

The problem: President Robert Mugabe and co.

The same President Robert Mugabe who, upon realizing that he had no chance of winning the runoff election, promptly announced that he had no intention of stepping down regardless of the outcome of the vote.

[Impact]

That's insane. I'm surprised they haven't released a $1 Trillion note yet.

[ATGC]

That's insane. I'm surprised they haven't released a $1 Trillion note yet.

"Some Zimbabweans are already calling for higher denominations in a country where the official annual inflation rate has exceeded 2,200,000%. Independent economists believe the real rate is many times higher. Zimbabwe's meltdown has left at least 80% of the population in poverty, facing mass shortages of basic goods. The country's central bank has introduced several new notes already this year in response to the hyperinflation. In January, a Z$10 million note was issued, followed by a Z$50 million. By June the denominations had reached tens of billions." - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7515823.stm

I guess wait 2 to 4 weeks for the 1 Trillion note?

[kingroach]

I want to buy one of those notes so that I can say im a billionare.

[ThisSiteHasLostItsCharm]

why haven't a crack team of soldiers gone to Zimbabwe and taken out that swine of a scumbag yet? f**k oil go there and get that s*d!

[Brad.]

That's insane..

[AdzzzUK]

why haven't a crack team of soldiers gone to Zimbabwe and taken out that swine of a scumbag yet? f**k oil go there and get that s*d!

Probably because there's no oil.

Although I couldn't agree with you any more than I do - he's a crook and clearly doesn't care about his country!

[metallithrax]

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) ? Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced new $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent casshortagesb> plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.

Whats the point in issuing new notes if people don't have the money in the first place? They don't just give the money to the people, so it makes no sense.

And I agree with the above that said we should get rid of that cheating, lying ****ing scumbag ****.

[Mordkanin]

Probably because there's no oil.

Although I couldn't agree with you any more than I do - he's a crook and clearly doesn't care about his country!

Why should we get involved? It's none of our business.

[thealexweb]

Doesn't look like things are going to get better any time soon.

[Dick Montage]

Why should we get involved? It's none of our business.

A murdering, cannibalistic (if reports are true) dictator who scnactions rape squads. That's part of everyone's business!

[PermaSt0ne]

Why should we get involved? It's none of our business.

uhhhh it's the business of the UN, of which we are a part. the whole point to the geneva convention, the UN, interpol, etc. is for countries to work together to help unstable countries like this get stable and begin producing commodities

why haven't a crack team of soldiers gone to Zimbabwe and taken out that swine of a scumbag yet? f**k oil go there and get that s*d!

because assassination is illegal, and the US would never break the law. oh and of course, ya know, stopping genocide in africa doesn't really match up to the oil we could get from iraq; even after our giant **** up

[MackTK]

Why should we get involved? It's none of our business.

Agreed, solving the situation by use of military already proved to make things worse. only thing can be done now is sending loads of aid to help the people.

2.2 million% inflation, god that is ridiculous

[Sethos]

Four oranges will get you a long way though.

[Brad.]

Four oranges will get you a long way though.

You always make me laugh Sethos.

(Y)

[Sn00pY]

So - tell me...... If I purchase $500 worth (US) of Zimbabwebian(?) $ and I get (say) 10billion Z$ will - if this country ever stablished - my Z$10 billion be recgonised as (for example) $5,000 US?

Interesting theory or am I being a COMPLETE moron?

[mad_onion]

i can't believe that some people think that we should just leave the situation as it is. it is EVERYONE'S duty to protect the human rights of others.

it really does seem like nobody cares because there's very little to gain, which just shows you how greedy humanity is (not that we didn't know that already)

[loople]

So - tell me...... If I purchase $500 worth (US) of Zimbabwebian(?) $ and I get (say) 10billion Z$ will - if this country ever stablished - my Z$10 billion be recgonised as (for example) $5,000 US?

Interesting theory or am I being a COMPLETE moron?

No, you're quite right. But what is more likely is that they will scrap the currency altogether and start a fresh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

As noted, in countries experiencing hyperinflation, the central bank often prints money in larger and larger denominations as the smaller denomination notes become worthless. This can result in the production of some interesting banknotes, including those denominated in amounts of 1,000,000,000 or more.

By late 1923, the Weimar Republic of Germany was issuing fifty-million Mark banknotes and postage stamps with a face value of fifty billion Mark. The highest value banknote issued by the Weimar government's Reichsbank had a face value of 100 trillion Mark (100,000,000,000,000). [3]. One of the firms printing these notes submitted an invoice for the work to the Reichsbank for 32,776,899,763,734,490,417.05 (3.28?1019, or 33 quintillion) Marks.[4]

The largest denomination banknote ever officially issued for circulation was in 1946 by the Hungarian National Bank for the amount of 100 quintillion pengő (100,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 1020). image (There was even a banknote worth 10 times more, i.e. 1021 pengő, printed, but not issued image.) The banknotes however didn't depict the number, making the 500,000,000,000 Yugoslav dinar banknote the world's leader when it comes to depicted zeros on banknotes. The Post-WWII hyperinflation of Hungary holds the record for the most extreme monthly inflation rate ever — 41,900,000,000,000,000% (4.19 ? 1016%) for July, 1946, amounting to prices doubling every fifteen hours.

One way to avoid the use of large numbers is by declaring a new unit of currency (an example being, instead of 10,000,000,000 Dollars, a bank might set 1 new dollar = 1,000,000,000 old dollars, so the new note would read "10 new dollars".) An example of this would be Turkey's revaluation of the Lira on January 1, 2005, when the old Turkish Lira (TRL) was converted to the new Turkish Lira (YTL) at a rate of 1,000,000 old to 1 new Turkish Lira. While this does not lessen actual value of a currency, it is called redenomination or revaluation and also happens over time in countries with standard inflation levels.