Shades of the Weimar Republic

Zimbabwe's millionaires worth only $1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2697694.ece

ZimbabweÂ’s currency has fallen to record levels, with one million
Zimbabwean dollars buying a single US dollar (48p) and inflation
reaching 8,000 per cent.

The bleak data was announced as people in the capital Harare struggled
to cope without electricity for the third day. “We closed our business
today,” said a woman who helps to run a major petrol supplier. “We just
can’t operate like this.”

The National Blood Transfusion Services said that it had been unable to
test blood since Tuesday. “We are in serious trouble,” said a doctor.

At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar held parity with the US
dollar but the currency has suffered from the recent economic policies
of President Mugabe; at the beginning of this year it was $Z2,800 to one
US dollar and ten days ago $Z500,000.

President Mugabe has struggled to keep inflation under control and in
July ordered businesses to halve their prices to alleviate the countryÂ’s
woes. The order resulted in the arrest of about 10,000 business people
as thousands of police officers raided companies, shopping malls and
markets to take goods marked above price control levels. Now the
supermarkets are bare and it is almost impossible to buy food.

Although the inflation rate slowed marginally in August it rose to 7,982
last month, according to official statistics, which are regarded as
highly conservative. “It shows the lunacy of their belief they can
legislate against inflation and bring it down at the barrel of a gun,”
said Rob Davies, an economist.

Officials in Mr MugabeÂ’s ruling party reportedly expect him to sign a
law that will force all foreign-owned companies, including local
subsidiaries of Barclays and Standard Chartered, to sell 51 per cent of
their equity to black Zimbabweans.