Zimbabwe’s Inflation Was #2: Prices Doubled Daily

A new paper in The Cato Journal “On the Measurement of Zimbabwe’s Hyperinflation” by Steve H. Hanke and Alex K. F. Kwok, documents Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation:

The 20th century witnessed 28 hyperinflations (Bernholz 2003: 8). Most were associated with the monetary chaos that followed the two World Wars and the collapse of communism. Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation of 2007-08 represents the first episode in the 21st century and the world’s 30th hyperinflation. As incredible as Zimbabwe’s November 2008 inflation rate was (see Table 1 above), it failed to push Zimbabwe to the top of the world’s hyperinflation league table. That spot is held by Hungary (see Table 2 above).

MP: Note in Table 2 above that at the height of Zimbabwe’s inflation in November 2008, prices were doubling every day, which didn’t quite reach the record in Hungary of prices doubling every 15 hours.
Reminds me of a story I heard once about how drinking warm beer was one of the “costs of hyperinflation” in either Hungary or Germany. Because all retail prices were supposedly rising by the hour, beer drinkers at taverns would order and pay for all of their beer at the beginning of the evening when prices were low and then drink warm beer all night, instead of buying one cold beer at a time at increasingly higher prices. It’s probably an example of a story that is “too good to check out” but why let the facts get in the way of a good story (as Benny points out they probably didn’t have refrigeration for beer back then)?

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