22 November 2020

A loaf of bread costs $100,000,000,000

Today [Nov 11, 2008] BBC radio reported on rampant hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. One man said his daily expenses were about 600 BILLION dollars, including 100 billion for a loaf of bread. The official inflation rate is 2 million percent per year, but most observers feel that is an underestimate. 

This is reminiscent of the hyperinflation that hit Hungary in 1945-46.  Here's a chart of the number of pengos per one gold franc - 

 7/9/46 100,000,000 
 7/10/46 300,000,000 
 7/11/46 2,000,000,000 
 7/12/46 10,000,000,000 
 7/13/46 30,000,000,000 
 7/15/46 120,000,000,000 
 7/16/46 500,000,000,000 
 7/17/46 2,500,000,000,000 
 7/18/46 6,000,000,000,000 
 7/19/46 60,000,000,000,000 

That's for just a ten-day period

Yugoslavia experienced hyperinflation in 1993; from October 1993 to January 1995 prices increased 5 QUADRILLION percent (5,000,000,000,000,000%). 

Wiki has a compilation of these episodes. 

Update 01/16/09: Zimbabwe has introduced a Z$100 trillion note.

Reposted from 2008 to add this photo of a 5-pound chicken that today (2020) costs 14,600,000 Venezuelan bolivars:

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