ZIMBABWE\u2019S inflation rate has hit 290 percent \u2013 the second highest in the world after Venezuela (reportedly 80,000 percent at the end of 2018), United States economist and currency expert Steve Hanke has said.<\/p>\n
\u201cZimbabwe\u2019s annual inflation rate measured for today, using high-frequency data, is 290 percent, a recent high,\u201d Hanke said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Inflation was being driven mostly by the shortage of foreign currency, which had led to huge disparities in the exchange rate between Zimbabwe\u2019s surrogate currency, the bond note, and the US dollar.<\/p>\n
Prices of basic commodities, such as cooking oil and flour, rose when the value of the bond note and electronic dollar collapsed on the parallel market.<\/p>\n
Hanke has been advocating for the bond note to be scrapped, which he refers to as the \u201cZollar\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been predicting the abandonment of dollarisation has resulted in another inflation surge. If Zimbabwe fails to remove the bond notes from the system the economy will lapse within a year or less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Venezuela, with the world\u2019s highest inflation according to Hanke, is in a deep political crisis that appears to be reaching fever peak. There are intensifying efforts by the opposition to remove socialist president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
Hanke calculates inflation using the Old Mutual implied rate and the purchasing power parity application. The surge in inflation brings back sad memories of 2008, which saw shops failing to restock and basic necessities disappearing in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe suffered severe hyperinflation in 2008 when the inflation rate reached 89.7 sextillion percent, which forced the government to adopt the multi-currency basket.<\/p>\n
During the hyperinflation period, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the statistical agency ZimStats could not keep track and stopped measuring and reporting on inflation.<\/p>\n
ZIMBABWE\u2019S inflation rate has hit 290 percent \u2013 the second highest in the world after Venezuela (reportedly 80,000 percent at the end of 2018), United States economist and currency expert Steve Hanke has said. \u201cZimbabwe\u2019s annual inflation rate measured for today, using high-frequency data, is 290 percent, a recent high,\u201d Hanke said on Friday. Inflation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,8,35],"tags":[152,83,174,240],"class_list":{"0":"post-2673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"category-head-lines","10":"category-homepage-english","11":"tag-crisis","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-money"},"yoast_head":"\n