One (hundred) beeellion dollars...

Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.

The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday.

As high as they are, though, the bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges.

The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar.

As Atrios says, Wheeeeeeeee!

I'm good at math and all...

...but this just blows my mind:

The impact on consumers of the inflation juggernaut is now such that prices of basic goods like bread, when available, go up by 30-40 percent per day.

For example, the price of a loaf of bread on Monday which stood at 60 billion Zimbabwe dollars -- one US dollar at the then black market rate but 400 according to the official exchange -- had risen to 100 billion little more than 24 hours later.

A three-star hotel in the capital has been hiking its room rates by around 300 percent every three days and in the latest round of increases, rates shot up from around four trillion dollars to 10 trillion.



That's not inflation. That's not even money!