Total economic collapse - 35 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars now worth 1 US dollar

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• published: 20 Jun 2015
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Total economic collapse: 35 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars now worth 1 US dollar Any remaining Zimbabwe dollars in circulation after September 30 2015 will be officially, as opposed to practically, deemed worthless Quadrillion is not a unit of measurement often used in many economic equasions, however, on June 15 this year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe took the last step in the process of relinquishing the country’s troubled sovereign currency. Zimbabwe dollars will be decommissioned at a rate of 35 quadrillion per US dollar (that’s Z$35,000,000,000,000,000 for US$1). A Mashable report has concluded that any remaining Zimbabwe dollars in circulation after September 30 2015 will be officially, as opposed to practically, deemed worthless. Withdrawing all Zimbabwe dollar banknotes from circulation officially brings an end to the era of people carrying cash around in large bags and even wheelbarrows to do their everyday shopping. In 2009, the end of the decade long recession saw the government adopt the US dollar as its main currency. Since then people have effectively used US dollars or South African rand in everyday life, while an increasingly small number of Zimbabwe dollars, with virtually no value, remained in circulation. Historical precedent Zimbabwe adopted the Rhodesian dollar in 1970, following decimalization and the replacement of the pound sterling as the currency. At the time of independence in 1980, the Rhodesian dollar was replaced by the Zimbabwe dollar, which was then worth US$1.50. Since then, rampant inflation, corruption, unresolved infrastructure bottle necks, President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reform program and general economic mismanagement have led to the collapse of the economy and a severely devalued currency, with many organizations using the US dollar instead. The 20th century saw several other examples of hyperinflation making banknotes worthless — notably Germany in the 1920s, Brazil in the 1980s, Argentina and Angola in the 1990s. In Zimbabwe the highest monthly inflation reached 79,600,000,000% in November 2008, with prices doubling every 25 hours. This was just short of Hungary’s record, where the highest ever monthly inflation reached 41,900,000,000,000,000% in July 1946 (and the highest denomination bill was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 or one hundred quintillion pengo). Once stability returned, most countries redenominated prices by introducing a new currency: Germany introduced the reichsmark in 1924, Brazil the real in 1994, Mexico the nuevo peso in 1993 (and back to peso in 1996). In these cases demonetization was effectively a process of redenomination — where the value of banknotes are changed, partly out of accounting convenience and partly to signal the arrival of a new era of more stable economy. Stand out case