We may grumble at the cost of petrol, food and other essential items in NZ at the present time but one look at the situation in Zimbabwe quickly puts things into perspective.
The above cheque for one quadrillion, seventy-two trillion, four hundred and eighteen billion and three million dollars was made out to a motor dealer in Zimbabwe on 23rd July 2008. Inflation has spun so madly out of control there that prices double on a daily basis. Teachers recently celebrated a pay increase that gave them 100 billion a week. However, inflation has already eroded any advantage from the increase. The following is an excerpt from a letter sent to someone on my staff:
Bread last week was 5 billion a loaf (when available) so who knows what it will be today. Milk is over 5 billion a litre. An ET into town is now 6 billion. A small packet of imported biscuits was selling for 53 billion, eggs are 3 billion each and wait for it, a chicken yesterday was 173 billion.
A lot of things are now unavailable and imported goods are unaffordable to most.
There seems to be no end to the madness that these people must endure. You have to queue for 3 hours in the bank and are permitted to withdraw up to only 25 billion per day. People who waiting in line, joke that their money is devaluing whilst they are in the queue.
Many people are trying to get out of Zimbabwe and who can blame them?
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