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| In Yugoslavia in 1993 prices rose 20% a day. In Zimbabwe in 2008, inflation reached 231,000,000%. Our cartoonist KAL looks at how hyperinflation can lead to the collapse of a country’s economy.
Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.trib.al/rWl91R7 When the prices of goods and services rise rapidly, families and businesses suffer. But on rare occasions when rising prices skyrocket out of control the result can be catastrophic hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is generally caused by reckless governments who let their money supply grow too fast. After the first world war, German prices at one point were rising at a rate of 23,000 percent a year. This caused the country’s economic system to collapse, creating a political opportunity for the Nazis. More recently in the former Yugoslavia, 1993 prices rose around 20% a day. Later, in July 2008, Zimbabwe’s official inflation rate reached an astonishing 231 million percent. Typically, hyperinflation quickly leads to a loss of confidence in the country’s currency. With the value of their cash diminishing, citizens pursue stable items like gold and foreign currency as safe stores of wealth. Hyperinflation might not be so bad if it were stable. People and businesses could plan for the future accounting for high, but predictable prices. However, there are no examples of stable hyperinflation. By its nature, hyperinflation is an uncontrollable and dangerous phenomenon. Daily Watch: mind-stretching short films every day of the working week. |
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