Inflation 1960-2020

Quite an interesting video showing "world leaders" in inflation.

Zimbabwe: "Hold my beer."

https://youtu.be/WRqZIc_KS4c

Interesting but in Spanish I think.

I have no idea what the country Birmania is.

Lots of African and Hispanic countries in the worst inflation.
Surprised to see NZ rating in the early 70s.

Cool video.
I was surprised with Yugoslavia.

Quote: "Moneytane"​
​I have no idea what the country Birmania is.
​

​Myanmar, in case you haven't figured it out by now.

Very interesting video. I was remembering a time when the inflation rate in the US was 12-13% and people were worried about how they were going to live on fixed incomes. Video really put things in perspective.

Yes, Myanmar. I hadn't noticed Spanish was still using Birmania (= Burma in English).

As for Yugoslavia, I saw these 10,000,000,000 dinar notes recently on eBay, so I wasn't too surprised.

So many misfortunes and deaths, it is a summary of all the dictatorships and crimes of the end of the XXth century. I have tears in my eyes

Quote: "Frenchlover"​So many misfortunes and deaths, it is a summary of all the dictatorships and crimes of the end of the XXth century. I have tears in my eyes

​That's what I thought. (Reminds me of Supertramps' 'Crime of the Century' album)

Some of the "winners" in the race:

Brazil ─ 500,000 Cruzeiros

Argentina ─ 500,000 Australes

Venezuela ─ 1,000,000 Bolivares

Yugoslavia ─ 10,000,000,000 Dinar

Zimbabwe ─ 100 000 000 000 000 Dollars

Hyperinflation ─ a nice collection theme!

The world champion is Hungary on 1946 :

Just before World War II, 5 Pengos (name of the currency) were needed for one US dollar.

In 1946, it was total economic horror: the exchange had risen to 4,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengos for one US $! 29 zeros
Billions were expressed only with the letter "B".

Inflation on July 1946 reached an average of 47% per day with peaks at 150%!
Banknote of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengos (10 to the power of 20), or 100 million billion pengo, the value of which corresponded to approximately US $ 0.20.


Banknote of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengos (10 to the power of 21), i.e. one billion billion pengo which was printed but never distributed because it was already exceeded by the speed of inflation.



People were throwing out no-value banknotes in the streets

I'm translating what your link says, FrenchLover, about one aspect of the Zimbabwe case:

At the end of June 2008, the price of a roll of toilet paper sold on the street cost Zim $10 billion. This item has three times fewer leaves than the number of $10 million notes it takes to pay for it ─ the reader can draw his own conclusion...

Many of thee Zim-Dollars where printed in Germany and I always found it fascinating that when the shipping arrived they where already worthless.

I think many people dreams and hopes are crushed espically when those hardworking and honest people when it.

Zim on the other hand, I remember one of the president says if I Don have money, I will go to the bank and print more money. That is how they ended.

I remember that horrible time in Yugoslavia. I was 11. Civil war raged in the part of the country that was falling apart.
The salary of my parents was about 10 German Mark, tomorrow that did not worth a pfennig.
People used German mark as an alternative currency.
Anything you wanted, you had to find on the black market and pay with marks.

The highest nomination was 500 000 000 000 Dinara.

Not forgetting the hilarious story of the German inflation wheelbarrow. A man was paid a stack of cash so large, he carried it in a wheelbarrow and went to a bakery to get some bread. He went inside and asked how much cash he needed to buy a loaf.

He came back outside to find the wheelbarrow gone, but all of the cash still there!

Two African countries spring to mind for me.

Angola - had Kwanzas in 1976 started with notes 20 to 1000 Kwanzas and coins under that. Around 1990 something it got to like 1 million Kwanzas, they switched to Kwanzas readjustos and these also ballooned out to like 5 million. Now have the novo Kwanza, started with the cents and already issuing 50 Kwanzo coins made of steel.


African communist stuff always makes me laugh, this stupid system of politics that failed in developed places turned Africa into even more of a basket case.


Some readjusted readjustos, notice this 1990s note still has that
COMMUNIST star!

Zaire. Back in 1965 Mobutu had Francs, around 1970 he started a new system of Zaires, and at the beginning was 3 units 100 senge = 1 Likuta, 100 Makuta (Plural of Likuta) = Zaire. In 1970 were coins of senges and Makutas with notes from 50 Makuta to 10 Zaires, a horseblanket thing showing Sese Mobutu in his leopard skin get up.



By 1988 the senges and Makutas were history and coins of 1, 5 and 10 Zaires issued which quickly became worthless. A 50 Zaires was added in the early 80s and new notes showing African style carved numerals came out. By 1992 they had reached 5 million Zaires and soldiers in the army refused to accept the 5 million note due to a grammatical error.



In 1993 a new currency was issued of 100 Nouveaux Makuta = 1 Nouveaux Zaire. Because of inflation and poverty, the currency was solely banknotes, no coins and the initial run featured notes from 1 Nouveaux Likuta up to 100 Zaires, of course inflation set in and more notes were added, again reaching the Un Million Nouveaux Zaires by 1996.



Finally in 1997 the Mobutu regime fell and the currency stablilised a bit (I think they have like 10k Francs or something now).

I feel thankful to live in a country where the highest denomination of banknote in 1934 was £50

Today it is $100 (Which is £50 in dollaz).

However £50 in 1934 was worth around $6,700 in todays money!

Thank you all for the feedback. It's interesting to read a first-hand account of daily life when your currency is worthless. I was always wondering: What happens when you get paid and, actually, your salary of last month becomes equivalent to pennies this month? I know that many people wanted to be paid in goods during the 1923 inflation in Germany when that was possible (e.g. teachers).

Yes, Africa is a particularly bad example. The only exception is Botswana, largely because they have been able to curb corruption which is rampant everywhere else.

Fun fact: Botswana shares with Zambia the world's shortest total international border, which is 157m long (there is a shorter border between a Spanish fort and Morocco, but the total border between these two is much longer). This means that Namibia and Zimbabwe are separated from each other only by a railway between Botswana and Zambia.

In Canada, a 1914 $1.00 is equivalent to $23.38 now. See the Inflation Calculator of the Bank of Canada.

Actually, during the ww2, the Japanese banana notes or war currency is also hyper inflation towards the end of the war. The most intresting these days is to find a counterfiet note. If you found one, it's consider rare.

Like some of the stories mentioned above - I have read about people burning the German hyperinflation money for warmth as it was cheaper than wood.
Some people made wallpaper and children used it for arts & craft.
Can't imagine the hardships the people went through then and currently in some of the African nations.

Had a relative tell me after ww2 in Yugoslavia the old currency was used as play money or monopoly money. It was also used for board games and card games.

And since World War 2 was mentioned, one shouldn't forget the Greek drachma:



These are quite easy to obtain. The engraving is rather basic; they obviously knew those notes wouldn't last very long before becoming worthless ─ nor would they be counterfeited.