Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Worried about the credit crunch? Fretting about House prices? We don't know the half of it.
I was listening to the World Service this morning and heard the local Zimbabwean reporter putting things into context.
Official inflation rate: 11,000,000%
Unofficial inflation rate: 300,000,000%
In Harringay you go into a shop with your money in your handbag and come out with your goods in a trolley. In Zimbabwe, you go in with your money in a trolley and, if you're lucky, come out with your goods filling your handbag.
The price of goods in a supermarket is increasing from the time you enter a shop.
When you go to a bar for the evening, you pay for your drinks in advance at the start of the evening. When I started writing this article a bottle of beer in Zimbabwe cost Z$18, 398,465. As I finish it stands at Z$18,398,919. Here's the counter I found to track this.
Official inflation rate: 11,000,000%
Unofficial inflation rate: 300,000,000%
In Harringay you go into a shop with your money in your handbag and come out with your goods in a trolley. In Zimbabwe, you go in with your money in a trolley and, if you're lucky, come out with your goods filling your handbag.
The price of goods in a supermarket is increasing from the time you enter a shop.
When you go to a bar for the evening, you pay for your drinks in advance at the start of the evening. When I started writing this article a bottle of beer in Zimbabwe cost Z$18, 398,465. As I finish it stands at Z$18,398,919. Here's the counter I found to track this.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Temporary. High inflation kills itself.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Yes. It can't go on indefinitely. The worthless currency is either replaced by barter or by dollarization - or replacement by any hard currency.
The people who suffer worst from the wicked rule of Mugabe and his henchmen are the elderly whose savings are worthless and ditto for the pensions of pensioners. Hyperinflation undermines all. Nobody holding hard currency would be keen to exchange it for Zim dollars - only for goods and services - so the banking system grinds to a halt.
IMHO Morgan Tsvangirai should have held out for a little longer and waited for total collapse of the monetary system, so that he didn't have to share power with Mugabe at all. Crucially, the army and police would then know that only Tsvangirai could have delivered meaningful wages (because Western donors would only stand behind Tsvangirai). As it happens, the agony of Zimbabwe will last longer yet ...
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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And Look what's happened since September.
Read the awful latest (A month ago, the hospitals were overflowing. Now they lie empty) plus linked articles on the Guardian's site.
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Thanks for the link Hugh. It gives new meaning to 'basket case'.
Even if Mugabe does not beg Tsvangirai to take over, someone among those around Mugabe might. Even if Morgan Tsvangirai were to take over full control tomorrow, he has Mugabe's soldiers to contend with and the solution of external aid will take time to take effect. The current army and police must be disbanded and rebuilt and those responsible for crime, punished.
The inaction so far, and until recently, silence, by Zimbabwe's neighbours is an indictment. One wonders what they might have been saying – and doing – if Mugabe had been a caucasian colonial master.
I believe even Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for external military intervention. This is probably the wisest or least bad course because the police and army in Zimbabwe are still armed and have shown they are prepared to use brute force against the people. In that respect, its like east Congo, whereby nothing else can improve before improved security.
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TEN zeros were slashed off the currency back in August, but even in the space of four months, ten billion dollars no longer buys what it used to, if those dollars are printed in late 2008 in the land ruling by Robert Mugabe.
The new denomination is provided for the "convenience of the public ahead of the festive season". CNN reports what that Z$10,000,000,000 note buys today (probably not next week).
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Update: since Hugh posted the photo of the one hundred billion Zimbabwean dollar note, their government has now apparently printed a one hundred trillion dollar note (did the Weimar repbulic ever issue such a high value note?!).
And the lunacy of this ultra-hyper inflation seems to have come to an end, with Mugabe's government finally abandoning their own worthless paper and formalizing the use of other countries' currency as "legal" tender, in the illegitmate regime.
Hopefully this move will destroy any remaining crediblity Mugabe has amongst the police and soldiers upon whose vestigal support Mugabe has relied. How can he pay their wages?
Morgan Tsvangirai should have nothing to do with the government until Mugabe has been removed permanently from power by whatever means. Hopefully Robert Mugabe's pension isdemonateddenominated solely in Zimbabwean dollars.
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