Geo answer

The World
The World

For today’s Geo Quiz — we’re zeroing in on the worst case of inflation in the world. We’re looking for a country in southern Africa. The local economy is in tatters.

Zimbabwean dollarsZimbabwean dollars

There are high rates of poverty and unemployment. But it’s the rate of inflation that is most mind-boggling. According to the country’s Central Bank, consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of 26 thousand percent.

That would be bad enough. But outside observers say the real inflation rate is more like 150,000 percent. Here’s a real-life example of what that means. Three months ago, buying a loaf of bread in this country would’ve cost 300,000 local dollars.

Today, that loaf would set you back 1.7 million dollars. The government tries to cope by printing more money. Last month, it announced a new $10 million dollar bill.

That’s worth about 4 US dollars, by the way.

So which country in southern Africa are we talking about?

The country with the highest inflation rate in the world is Zimbabwe, in southern Africa.

Zimbabwe

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.