As I've pointed out in the past, under the stewardship of dictator/thug Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe has gone from the bread basket of Africa with a thriving and robust economy to the basket case of the world. The inflation rate today stands at 1,042 percent.
No worries though, the central bank has issued new $100,000 bill to make it more convenient for Zimbabwaians to buy a loaf of bread.
The note makes its debut barely four months after the Reserve Bank introduced the $50,000 note, the highest denomination at the time. In only two weeks the Zimbabwe dollar has lost half of its value.
Despite the hyperinflation, mass unemployment and crippling shortages of fuel and foreign currency, Zimbabwe is a country of millionaires. Shoppers have to carry huge wads of cash to buy the basic foodstuffs available in most shops.
“Last week I filled a single trolley with $30 million of groceries, and I had to count out 600 notes of $20,000 at the checkout counter,” John Robertson, an economist, said.
Despite the economic gloom, he said that at least the new note “means when we go shopping, we don’t have to take a suitcase of money: we can carry it in a shoulder bag”.
But the Mugabe Government says it has things under control. Gideon Gono, governor of the central bank says that inflation should be down to a mere 50% within a year.
And pigs will fly.
