The digital era · 2000–today
2008
Zimbabwe's hyperinflation
Prices double about every day, and a 100-trillion-dollar note buys very little.
Zimbabwe's government financed itself by creating money as the economy shrank. Inflation peaked in November 2008, with prices estimated to double about every day. A 100-trillion-dollar note followed in 2009, and the country gave up its own currency that year for foreign ones such as the US dollar.
💡 Why it made sense then
With output collapsing and few other ways to pay its bills, the government kept printing, and each round of printing made people spend money faster.
Ideas it gave us
- 🌍 Hyperinflation
Hyperinflation is extremely fast inflation, usually defined as prices rising more than 50% in a month. Money loses its value so quickly that people rush to spend it, which pushes prices up even faster.
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