Archive for the tag 'Ip'

Now That’s Inflation — Zimbabwe

Kurt Brouwer October 17th, 2007

The Real Time Economics Blog had a sobering post on what real inflation looks like:

Inflation Higher? Count Your Blessings Mr. Bernanke (Real Time Economics Blog, October 17, 2020, Greg Ip)

Consumer prices rose 0.27% in September from August, an annual rate of 3.2% - after an annualized drop of 1.7% in August, the Labor Department reported. Stripping out energy and food, core inflation rose to an annualized 2.7% from 1.8%. “Consumer inflation is not yet rolling over and playing dead,” warned Wells Fargo in a research note.

Still, a glance at figures released the same day for Zimbabwe offer some perspective. Inflation there hit an annualized 7,982.1% in September, up from 6,592.8% in August, Reuters reports, quoting the government’s Central Statistical Office. Despite the admirable precision of that inflation rate, “Experts estimate it is actually much higher,” the news agency says…’

Zimbabwe is an example of self-inflicted error in national development. The country has been run by a dictator, Robert Mugabe, for decades and his policies have impoverished a country that once was able to feed itself. Now, Zimbabwe’s citizens are struggling just to keep body and soul together.