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Zimbabwe Dollars ranging from 10–100 billion printed within a one year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.

Zimbabwe currently boasts the second worst hyperinflation in history. In order for a country and its currency to qualify for hyperinflation, the inflation rate must be at a minimum of 50% per month. Zimbabwe reached this mark in February 2007 and since then inflation has continued to grow. During the height of inflation from 2008-2009, it was difficult to accurately account and monitor for Zimbabwe's hyperinflation because the government of Zimbabwe stopped filing official inflation statistics. This cease file made it difficult to accurately observe how severe inflation was in the country. In 2009 Zimbabwe abandoned its currency, at present in 2011 a new currency has yet to be introduced.

Historical Context

On April 18, 1980 the new sovereign republic of Zimbabwe was born from the former British colony of Rhodesia. The Rhodesian Dollar was replace by the Zimbabwe Dollar at par value. At the time when Zimbabwe gained its independence, the $Z was more valuable than the $USD. After the sovereign republic of Zimbabwe was born, the country experienced a period of strong growth and development. Wheat production for non-drought years was proportionally higher than in the past. The tobacco industry was thriving as well. For all practical purposes the economic indicators for the country were strong.

In the 1990s Zimbabwe entered a period of land reforms. During this period from 1999-2009, the country experienced a sharp drop in production in all sectors. Unemployment rose and life expectancy dropped. The land reforms were implemented under president Robert Mugabe. The land reforms were intended to redistribute land from the white landowners back to the black farmers. When the land was redistributed, the food production dropped sharply. Many argue this is people the black farmers had no experience or training in running large scale farms.

The Zanu-PF government holds that the majority of Zimbabwe's economic woes are a result of the economic sanctions imposed by the United States of America and the European Union. This claim is unfounded because the sanctions are targeted at a specific group of 200 Zimbabweans who are closely tied to the Mugabe regime. The sanctions are not generalized sanctions, but instead involve asset freezes and visa denials.

Causes

It is generally accepted that any number of reasons can contribute to hyperinflation of a currency. Unstable governments, civic unrest, and lack of fiscal discipline are generally the causes for hyperinflation. For Zimbabwe all three of these are relevant.

The unstable Government of Zimbabwe is currently led by Robert Mugabe. Mugabe's regime is known for massacring citizens, controlling the media, and perpetuating corruption within the government. According to Transparency International Zimbabwe's government ranks 134th of 176 in terms of institutionalized corruption. This corruption directly effects the country causing instability and negative economic effects. The violent land reform program destroyed the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe and in particular the tobacco industry which accounted for one-third of Zimbabwe's foreign exchange earnings. The manufacturing and mining sectors also suffered great declines. An economy in free fall is a prime target for inflation and in this case hyperinflation. Instead of instituting constructive policies, the government continued to spend and print money. The government refuses to accept the magnitude of the problem, and therefore solutions cannot be reached.

The second cause of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe is civic unrest. Zimbabwe experienced a bloody massacre in the 1980s in the southern provinces of Matabeleland and Midlands. The massacre was carried out by Zimbabwe's Fifth Brigade Elite Army Division who was trained by North Korean soldiers. The massacre was responsible for the deaths of over 20,000 ethnic Ndebele People. This massacre was a response by Mugabe's government after guerrilla attacks on civilian and state targets. The Ndebele people are a minority, while Mugabe's Shona People are the ruling ethnic majority. This has led to many clashes. In addition to minority and majority unrest, there is also unrest between the blacks and the whites. As mentioned before the late 1999s saw a period of land reform, which further contributed to the unrest. Indigenisation law seeks to correct the injustices of colonialism and give the black Zimbabweans controlling stakes in all companies. The law also seeks to prevent whites from business ownership. These new laws are scaring the whites out of the country and furthering the discord. A final cause of civic unrest is the cycle of poverty and violence. Hyperinflation continues to cause more poverty and poverty in turn causes more violence and discord. This discord then contributes to inflation. Zimbabwe has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world. The country lacks open media channels and violence is frequently used against citizens who oppose the current regime. There is a vicious cycle of poverty and violence and researchers are finding that in addition to the "poverty trap," there is also a "violence trap."

Lack of fiscal discipline is the third reason for hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. Mugabe's government was printing money to finance troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2000 Mugabe authorized Zimbabwean troops to fight in the Second Congo War. The involvement in the Congolese war cost millions of dollars a month. One of the main costs of this war involvement was paying higher salaries to army and government officials. This required the printing of currency. Zimbabwe was grossly under-reporting its spending involvement in this war to the IMF. Some reports cite a discrepancy of $22 million a month. Zimbabwe was involved in this conflict not because the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a bordering nation and posed a threat, but instead because rebel territory contained diamond mines. These mines were the motivating factor for involvement in the conflict. The Government of Zimbabwe struck a deal with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that involved a joint venture in diamond and gold mines to serve as payment for involvement. It has been rumored that many of the diamonds and the revenue from the mine have been funneled into the corrupt government purse or former soldiers have illegally removed diamonds from the mines.

The final factor that ties all of these causes together is that while the government lacked stability and fiscal discipline and the citizens were experiencing serious bouts of malcontent and strife, the perception of strength of the currency was dropping. When the citizens perceive a weak government with poor policies and instability, they lose faith in the currency. This loss of faith then caused hyperinflation. Taken together, all of these events contributed to the drop in positive perception and the rise of inflation. As trends in perception change due to government policies and stability so does the faith in the currency. The demand for a currency is a function of the expectation of future inflation. In the case of Zimbabwe, this expectation was high.

Taken together all of these elements created the perfect storm for hyperinflation to explode in Zimbabwe. The government was excessively printing money to finance corruption and war, the people were struggling with citizen unrest and dissatisfaction with standards of living, and the black market was thriving all leading to hyperinflation.

Inflation Rates

Zimbabwean inflation rates since independence (official up to July 2008, estimates thereafter)

Date	Rate	Date	Rate	Date	Rate	Date	Rate	Date	Rate
1980	7%	1986	15%	1992	40%	1998	48%	2004	133%
1981	14%	1987	10%	1993	20%	1999	57%	2005	586%
1982	15%	1988	7%	1994	25%	2000	55%	2006	1,281%
1983	19%	1989	14%	1995	28%	2001	112%	2007	6.62×105%
1984	10%	1990	17%	1996	16%	2002	199%	July 2008	2.315×109%
1985	10%	1991	48%	1997	20%	2003	599%	mid-Nov 2008	7.96×1010%

Over the course of the 5 year span of hyperinflation, the inflation rate fluctuated greatly. The inflation rates grew at an impossibly high rate. At one point the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe predicted that it would reach 1.5million%. Sadly, this prediction was low with inflation under some estimates reaching 2.31million%. To further illustrate the speed and gravity of the situation, in June 2008 the annual rate of price growth was 11.2million%. This was only in one month! The worst of the inflation occurred in 2008 and 2009 leading to the abandonment of the currency. To gain a better perspective, the price of $1USD cost $Z2,621,984,228 when inflation was at its peak in 2008.

Currency System

Money in Circulation

In 2007 the government tried to declare inflation illegal. Anyone who raised the prices for goods and services was subject to arrest. During this period of price freezes Zimbabwean officials arrested numerous corporate executives for changing their prices. Usually measures such as price freezes do not work in halting inflation.

In December of 2008 the use of foreign currency in Zimbabwe was expanded. Citizens were increasingly using foreign currency as a medium for daily exchanges. Local shops were offering fewer and fewer goods and services available in the local currency. Due to this local businesses were suffering from chronic shortages of foreign currency that they used to import foreign goods. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe recognized this problem and licensed around 1,000 shops to officially deal in foreign currency. Even though only licensed businesses were allowed to accept foreign currencies, non-licensed businesses and even street vendors were using foreign currency. Many businesses had already illegally adopted this practice.

In January of 2009, the acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced that the restriction for using only Zimbabwean Dollars would be lifted. This announcement was long overdue, considering many citizens and vendors alike had already been dealing in foreign currencies. Citizens would be allowed to conduct business using other currencies alongside the Zimbabwean Dollar. Some of the other approved currencies are the United States Dollar, the Euro, and the South African Rand. This was a much needed move because many shops were already demanding payment in currencies other than the $Z. This was creating a problem because teachers and civil servants were still being paid in $Z. Even though their salaries were in the trillions per month, this amounted to around $1USD a month. To put this in perspective, it costs about $2USD to ride the bus to work. The salaries of the workers were not enough to pay for their daily needs. In addition to the currency restrictions, there was also a bank withdrawal restriction in place. This was a policy that attempted to limit the amount of money that was in circulation and slow inflation. This policy was ineffective and limited the amount of cash withdrawals that citizens could make to $Z500,00, which was around $0.25USD.

Living with a hyper-inflated currency was posing a challenge for Zimbabweans. Prices in shops and restaurants were still quoted in $Z, but due to the ever changing nature of inflation, they were adjusted multiple times a day. Because hyperinflation was so severe, and the $Z depreciated in value so rapidly, it needed to be exchanged for foreign currency on the parallel market immediately. For example a mini-bus driver will still charge his clients in $Z, but his rates will be higher depending on what time of day it is. The evening commute garners the highest price. As he collects his fares he will sometimes exchange money up to 3 times a day. These exchanges were not taking place in centralized banks, but instead they were taking place in back office rooms and parking lots contributing to a thriving black market.

The Black Market

Official, black market, and OMIR exchange rates Jan 1, 2001 to Feb 2, 2009. Note the logarithmic scale.

The black market cropped up due to the high demand for foreign currency exchanges. As inflation grew at an almost exponential rate, the need to exchange $Z as soon as they were acquired was a necessity. In addition to foreign exchange transfers, the black market existed to serve the demand for daily goods such as soap or even bread.Grocery store shelves were commonly bare and the black market existed to bridge this gap. Store owners were no longer interested in selling items whose prices were strictly controlled. If a store did have items common practice was to charge customers a higher price if they were paying in $Z as opposed to another currency. At one point a loaf of bread was $Z550 million in the regular market, but there was no guarantee that the grocery stores would have bread, so the black market or driving hundreds of miles to another country were the only options. Due to this high demand and low supply, the black market rate for a loaf of bread was around $Z10 billion. In Zimbabwe, the source for almost all goods became the black market.

Currency Denominations

In 1980 when Zimbabwe became independent, the Zimbabwe dollar became the common currency. The currency originally had 6 denominations in paper notes and 8 denominations in coinage. The paper notes were Z$500, 100, 50, 20, 5 and 2. The coins were Z$5, 2, 1, 50, 20, 10, 5, and 1 cents. As the inflation rose, larger bills were needed to pay for menial amounts. The bills that ultimately were printed ranged from the original denominations up to Z$100billion. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe planned to print and circulate denominations of up to Z$10, 20, 50, and 100 trillion. The Central Bank would no sooner print and distribute one denomination of its currency and within days there would be a new announcement of a higher denomination being printed. The announcement for the Z$200,000,000 bill came just days after the printing of the Z$100,000,000 bill.

As inflation rose, the government continued printed larger and larger bills. They did not attempt to combat the inflation with other fiscal and monetary policy. In 2006 before the hyperinflation reached its peak, the bank had already announced that it would be printing larger bills to buy foreign currencies. This led the Reserve Bank to print a Z$21trillion bill to pay off debts owed to the IMF.

In an attempt to revalue and combat inflation, the Central Bank of Zimbabwe undertook 2 efforts to change the denomination of the currency. The first effort was undertaken in August of 2006. The Central Bank asked citizens to turn in notes and exchange for new notes with three zeros slashed from the currency. This was in attempt to slow the inflation. The bank attempted this policy again in July of 2008. The governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono announced that a new Zimbabwean dollar would be printed, but this time 10 zeros would be slashed. This would mean that the Z$10 billion would be redemoninated to be Z$1. The 10 zeros were not only cut to try to slow inflation, but also to make the currency more manageable for the people who were using it.

Solutions

Usually hyperinflation can be halted within a few months provided the necessary steps are taken by the government to halt the growing rates. In most cases governments would simply stop printing excess money, but in the case of Zimbabwe, it is too late for this solution to work. In this case hyperinflation has lasted for a period of roughly 5 years. A common solution is for the country to abandon its currency altogether and use another, more stable currency. Zimbabwe could adopt any number of currencies ranging from the $US to the Euro or the South African Rand. It is less important what currency is officially adopted because generally if people mutually agree to conduct trade or business in a currency, this is good for the economy. Eventually, because of how economies arise, the usual tendency is for one currency to dominate even when people have the ability to choose. There are pros and cons to adopting either of the currencies mentioned above, but the $US has the most credibility and is the most widely traded.

Another suggestion to stop inflation is for Zimbabwe to join the special currency zone known as the Rand Zone. The Rand Zone is an formal group of countries that collectively use one currency for better trade and stability. Zimbabwe could join this union comprised of Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. A currency union, like the Rand Zone, would allow openness and ideally boost the Zimbabwean economy which has slumped since the onslaught of hyperinflation.

If the country did not want to abandon their currency immediately, they could also maintain the $Z, but enact a strict monetary policy. The government can allow the exchange rate to float. This floating period would last for around 30 days and then the government could declare a fixed exchange rate with the Rand and declare that the Rand would be a simultaneous currency with the $Z. The Rand would be the domestic currency, but the government would continue to accept $Z to pay taxes at the fixed rate until all of the $Z are out of circulation. There exist a host of other solutions, but these are the most widely discussed and the most feasible. Currently Zimbabwe uses a combination of foreign currencies, but mostly $US. A solution in its entirety has not been decided on as of 2011, and the economy is still in a slump.