Zimbabwe's Hyperinflation Offers A Grim Lesson For Venezuela

Ten years after hyperinflation peaked in Zimbabwe at an estimated 500 billion percent, the country's economy still lies in ruins, unable to fund basic public services and plagued by mass unemployment and emigration.

Harare, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Aug, 2018 ) :Ten years after hyperinflation peaked in Zimbabwe at an estimated 500 billion percent, the country's economy still lies in ruins, unable to fund basic public services and plagued by mass unemployment and emigration.

Zimbabwe's long and painful suffering is an ominous lesson for Venezuelans facing Currency devaluations in a desperate bid by their government to tackle hyperinflation.

Prices in Zimbabwe spiralled out of control between 2008 and 2009 as the Zimbabwe Dollar plunged in value, triggered in part by the seizure of white-owned farms.

As agricultural output plummeted, Robert Mugabe's government printed vast amounts of Zimbabwe Dollars in a doomed attempt to ride out the crisis.

Shops raised prices several times a day and, in 2008, a 100-trillion-dollar note was introduced -- though it could barely buy a loaf of bread as supplies ran out and the economy imploded.

After several drastic devaluations, Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 in favour of the US dollar.

Locals' savings, investments and pensions were all wiped out, millions of people moved abroad and foreign investment evaporated.

Zimbabweans struggled on using scarce US dollar bills, though the little remaining economic activity was often conducted through bartering and informal trade.

In 2016, the government tried to tackle the chronic shortage of US banknotes by introducing a parallel currency called "bond notes", theoretically worth the same as a US dollar.

Bond notes are in reality worth far less than the US dollar, and many Zimbabweans fear that the currency could be rendered worthless by another hyperinflation storm.