United States-based economist and currency expert Steve Hanke has ranked Zimbabwe as the worst among the top ten countries hardest hit by inflation.
In his inflation dashboard, Hanke said Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate had climbed to 1266% per year.
“This week’s top five inflators are Zimbabwe 1266%, South Sudan 317%, Sudan 229%, Nigeria 125%, Myannar 71%, Ghana 39%, Egypt 37%, Ethiopia 36%, Cuba 29% and Liberia 28% per year,” Hanke said.
The inflation rates are implied using purchasing power parity from free and black market exchange rate data, sourced from International Monetary Fund, central banks and individual countries.
Meanwhile, by the end of September 2024, according to Hanke, the country’s inflation was at 880% per year.
In April this year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency to replace the RTGS which had significantly declined in value with attempts to revive the currency consistently failing.
When it was first introduced, the central bank stated that the new currency was supported by 2.5 tonnes of gold and foreign currency reserves.
Six months later, the currency has devalued, now trading at $1:ZWG40 to 50 on the black market while the official exchange rate is US$1:ZWG26.65.
