Zimbabwe is one those unfortunate countries that are able to get everything horribly wrong. Facts and figures about it's latest development are amazing, In a very bad bad way. Majority of people in the world are blaming corrupted and badly managed Mugabe's regime. And I think that they are not terribly wrong. You just cannot believe the things you are reading and seeing from news about Zimbabwe.
Few examples of things gone miserably (lately):
- Life expectancy has dropped since 1990 from around 60 to 36 (male) and 34 (female).
- Puplic health care has more or less collapsed with many of hospitals been shut down
- Total of 1,8 million are living with HIV (total population 13,2 million)
- Infant mortality rate is 81 death from every 1,000 birth
- Huge colera outbrake in Dec 2008 due to infrastucture collapsion
- 60 % of wildlife has died because of the deforestration
- Tourism has decreased steadily after 1990's
But let's look at their economy (or lack of it). That is also one little bummer. They had steady economic growth throughout 80's (after indepence) and 90's and everything seemed to be going, well, not So bad (if you don't count massagres, HIV outbreaks, corruption etc.). After year 2000 everything basically went down the drain. One example was that weird land redistribution, which gradually turned their farming industry from export to net import.
Economy hitted rock bottom in year 2008, when Zimbabwe' s Inflation rate was so high that they put even Germany's 1923 hyperinflation to shame. Germany's peak was December 1923 when exchange rate was 4,200,000,000,000 Marks to 1 US dollar. 1 pound bread cost back then 1 billion marks. Inflation rate meant that prices doubled every two days.
But Zimbabwe's figures were even more staggering. They had their "all-in" in July 2008 when inflation rate was around 231,000,000 %. The average prices doubled in 1,3 days. They added zeros to their currency (ZWD) faster than Facebook was increasing their user count. Today, after wild ride in 2008 their own money is basically a fragile memory. It still circulates alongside foreign currencies but it's value is cut in half every two days against U.S. dollar.
Tommy
Ps. Number 1 spot in hyperinflation is still in Hungary's hands. They messed their currency between 1945-1946. Prices doubled every 15,6 hours. Highest denomination was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengő. The value of their currency was adjust daily by radio announcement. People were literally sweeping cash to sewer in streets.
Few examples of things gone miserably (lately):
- Life expectancy has dropped since 1990 from around 60 to 36 (male) and 34 (female).
- Puplic health care has more or less collapsed with many of hospitals been shut down
- Total of 1,8 million are living with HIV (total population 13,2 million)
- Infant mortality rate is 81 death from every 1,000 birth
- Huge colera outbrake in Dec 2008 due to infrastucture collapsion
- 60 % of wildlife has died because of the deforestration
- Tourism has decreased steadily after 1990's
But let's look at their economy (or lack of it). That is also one little bummer. They had steady economic growth throughout 80's (after indepence) and 90's and everything seemed to be going, well, not So bad (if you don't count massagres, HIV outbreaks, corruption etc.). After year 2000 everything basically went down the drain. One example was that weird land redistribution, which gradually turned their farming industry from export to net import.
Economy hitted rock bottom in year 2008, when Zimbabwe' s Inflation rate was so high that they put even Germany's 1923 hyperinflation to shame. Germany's peak was December 1923 when exchange rate was 4,200,000,000,000 Marks to 1 US dollar. 1 pound bread cost back then 1 billion marks. Inflation rate meant that prices doubled every two days.
But Zimbabwe's figures were even more staggering. They had their "all-in" in July 2008 when inflation rate was around 231,000,000 %. The average prices doubled in 1,3 days. They added zeros to their currency (ZWD) faster than Facebook was increasing their user count. Today, after wild ride in 2008 their own money is basically a fragile memory. It still circulates alongside foreign currencies but it's value is cut in half every two days against U.S. dollar.
Tommy
Ps. Number 1 spot in hyperinflation is still in Hungary's hands. They messed their currency between 1945-1946. Prices doubled every 15,6 hours. Highest denomination was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengő. The value of their currency was adjust daily by radio announcement. People were literally sweeping cash to sewer in streets.
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