HARARE: Indians who lament the diminishing value of the rupee and the rising cost of living should spare a thought for Zimbabweans. They have had to routinely cart around bushels of their ‘dollars’ even for the most mundane shopping trips as their nation’s inflation touched a mind-boggling billion per cent.
The thrill of holding a 100 trillion dollars even if Zimbabwean in the palm of the hand cannot be underestimated, except when it probably only covers the bus ticket to the bank.
No wonder Zimbabwe has decided to phase out its own worthless dollars from this week and formalise the multi-currency system that has been in use since 2009 and includes the Indian rupee as legal tender besides US and Australian dollars, yen, yuan, pound and even Botswana’s pula. But the numbers involved in the swap would still bewilder the average Indian.
An exchange rate of Z$35 quadrillion that means a total of 15 zeroes after 35 to US$1 gives a very graphic image indeed of the true value of the Zimbabwean currency.
Hopefully, most of the money is in dematerialised form in bank accounts so the conversion will be painless, otherwise banks will be buried under mountains of notes brought in by the trainload.
