http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/06/zimbabwe-cholera-hospitals... Money is a complicated business in Zimbabwe even if most people do not have much. Cash has been in desperately short supply because the government cannot print fast enough to keep up with hyperinflation. Officially inflation stands at 231m percent, but that was in July. Since then the central bank has regarded economic statistics as a state secret.
John Robertson, one of Zimbabwe's most respected economists, has accurately estimated the rate of inflation in the past. He says it shot through the billions, trillions and quadrillions between August and October until it reached 1.6 sextillion percent last month. A sextillion has 21 noughts.
... As the government grappled with the cash shortage caused by hyperinflation it severely limited the amount Zimbabweans could withdraw from their bank accounts. Until this week it was the equivalent of 18p a day. But after soldiers rioted in central Harare on Monday, looting stores charging in US dollars and snatching money from the illegal currency traders in an informal market known as the Copacabana, the central bank raised the withdrawal limit to Z$100m - the equivalent of £5 a week - from Thursday, though the real value was falling rapidly by the day. But, far from alleviating the crisis, the extra cash in the system drove the Zimbabwe dollar to new depths. It fell from Z$3m to the pound on Wednesday evening to Z$22m yesterday.
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