Now don't get me wrong. The current situation in Zimbabwe is atrocious for the people who live there. I'm not going to get political - that's just not what YBATYD is about, so don't worry. I just want you all to know that this post is about a situation and not about people. Right? Good.The situation in Zimbabwe at the moment is brilliant. Why so? Because they have the most unbelievable inflation in the history of ever, coupled with a simply bonkers approach to dealing with it all - print more money. And not just print more money, but keep re-launching the currency and issuing notes in quite staggering denominations.
OK - time for some numerical fun.
Today, the rate of inflation in the UK stands at 3.3%. In Zimbabwe it is slightly higher at almost 10,500,000%. Yes that's ten and a half million percent. Crackin'.
Today the official exchange rate for the Zimbabwe Dollar against the British Pound is fairly impressive. If you exchange one, solitary Pound for your Zimbabwean Dollar you will get Z$21,450,168. Not bad at all. Oh and if you do the currency exchange the other way you find that Z$1.00 is equal to one-five millionth of a penny. "Can you spare any change guv?".
So, let's look at a real-life situation shall we? This is fun.
Imagine I want to buy A Rampant Rabbit Wave vibrator from Ann Summers in Harare. The UK price for this, er, internal massager is £49. Now let's all whip out our Casio calculators and just see how much that would cost in Zimbabwe. And the answer is:
Z$1,051,058,232. Yes that's over a billion Zimbabwean dollars! Mind you, the Rampant Rabbit Wave does give you "3 levels of ripple intensity and 3 speed buzzy ears". I'd say that's a bargain.
OK. Here are a few more incredible facts about the currency situation:
In February 2007, the central bank of Zimbabwe declared inflation "illegal". Genius.
They do have coins but due to their minuscule value, they only function as gambling tokens in Zimbabwean casinos. Handy.
To help people avoid carrying wheelbarrow loads of cash around, the bank have cleverly now issued mega-banknotes. The highest value one is for Z$50 billion. Simple solution.
And finally - the government are spending £382,000 a week to buy in printed notes with a value of Z$170 trillion.
And we think we have a credit crunch .....
