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In response to
"What does that mean, in real terms?"
by
Subversive
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According to this guy, it means prices double about every 5 1/4 days
Posted by
Brian (aka trav007)
Nov 20 '08, 10:06
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Yep, we're back on Zimbabwe again.
Last week, Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rate was a cheery 593 quintillion percent p.a. This week, it's 89.7 sextillion percent (897 followed by twenty zeroes and the overthrow of the government) - a doubling of prices about every five-and-a-quarter days over the last year.
The rate is accelerating, though - if you look at the weekly data for the last two weeks, prices have doubled about every 22 hours. (Side note: you'd think that a doubling every 24 hours would be a nice round level for inflation to plateau at, and you'd be pretty much right - it's stalled there for nearly a month now.)
That's still nowhere near the record, though; that would belong to the once-every-14-hours doublings of postwar Hungary (the blue line on the chart). It's impossible to stick a neat trendline through all of those points, but it does look like it's on track to break Hungary's record sometime before year end. Guesses on the precise date in the comments below; nearest the pin wins.
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