When it comes to Zimbabwe, most people take the attitude of looking at jokes. The country's currency is the cheapest in the world, and its face value is even far below the cost of printing. People have to use tens of billions of bills to buy a loaf of bread. The domestic economy is in chaos. But what you may not know is that 30 years ago, this was one of the richest countries in Africa comparable to South America, and its rich industrial and agricultural resources and high level of industry and agriculture earned it the reputation of "Africa's granary". At that time, the Zimbabwean coin was even higher than the US dollar, and the exchange rate between the two reached 1 to 1.47.
Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe
After 1980, however, the wealthy African country was mired in hyperinflation. Zimbabwe's currency depreciation recorded as high as one trillion old coins for 1 new dollar. Today, inflation in Zimbabwe remains as high as 2,200,000%.
To this day, the domestic economy still resorts to foreign currencies. The pound sterling, the US dollar became the circulating legal tender in Zimbabwe. It is used with the domestic fiat currency, the Zimbabwean coin.
Once Zimbabwean coins
Land reform is the beginning of decay
The depreciation of the Zimbabwean currency was due to land reforms imposed by the government. In 1980, Zimbabwe gained independence from the British colonies. In order to weaken the influence of the metropolis on the country's economy, the newly formed independent government began far-reaching land reforms. From the colonial era in 1890, as a suzerainty, white British occupied a large number of land, and by 1980 independence, the country's 4500 farmers occupied 75% of the country's land, while 7 million blacks accounted for only 25% of the remaining, President Mugar was determined to land reform, and at the beginning this policy was supported by the British government, which provided funds to Zimbabwe so that the government could redeem the land occupied by whites back to blacks.
But it didn't take long for the British government to find that no matter how much money they invested, the distribution of land could not be carried out. Large amounts of money were withheld by the corrupt Zimbabwean government and turned into their private property. The life of the black people at the bottom is even more miserable. In the bustling city, a large number of high-rise buildings and mansions are lined up one after another.
As the British government halted financial aid, Zimbabwe responded to a more extreme approach – violent land reform. President Mugar confiscated a large number of white territories, and in this way Britain and Zimbabwe drifted apart. Whites have withdrawn from investment in Zimbabwe, where industrial production is nearly paralyzed: in agriculture, blacks at the bottom have no land but no money to buy seeds and produce farm implements. Africa's former granaries could not even feed their own people.
At the same time, extreme nationalism inspired the antagonism between blacks and whites. Britain and the United States implemented economic policies towards Zimbabwe, and in desperation, Zimbabwe began to issue a large number of currencies, which is undoubtedly a drinking and thirst quenching.
Under the impact of a large number of bad currencies, inflation has reached a new high every day, and the national unemployment rate has reached 80%. By 2006, the Zimbabwean coin had depreciated more than 1,000 times, and Zimbabwe had to start currency reform.
The high-level government seems to have no intention of implementing currency reform, because every time there is inflation, it is the top elite who benefits, and after the issuance of the third generation of Zimbabwean coins, it is necessary to remove 22 zeros after the original denomination, but this still does not stop the deterioration of Zimbabwean coins, and the local people still need to carry "huge sums" of money every day to exchange for a piece of food.
Oversized Zimbabwean dollars
At the height of inflation, 100 trillion tsu coins can buy 5 bottles of water in the morning, and only 2 bottles in the afternoon.
At that time, the exchange rate was 1 US dollar≈ 25 million Zimbabwean dollars
What's even funnier is that public toilets post notices prohibiting the use of banknotes as toilet paper
In September 2015, Zimbabwe officially announced that the Zimbabwean coin faded out of the world and became history...