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The $100,000 note that won't buy a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe
Daily Telegraph (UK)
June 07, 2006

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?

The 100,000 Zimbabwean dollar note which went into circulation this week was officially worth just over 50p. Yesterday on Zimbabwe's burgeoning black markets it was valued at about 16p.

In a country stricken by 1,000 per cent inflation, the world's worst, the new note will not even buy a loaf of bread.

Hours after the national mint started printing the notes, the price of bread shot up by more 40 per cent to $130,000, the third such increase this year.

"This new money makes life better as long as we get a $200,000 note in a few weeks to replace this one," said Shadreck Mbima, a cashier at a supermarket in central Harare.

Mr Mbima said queues regularly formed at his checkout as staff struggled to count stacks of currency.

At a supermarket in Harare's northern suburbs, Deborah Wilson, a mother of four, bought two large soft drinks, two litres of milk, a dozen imported small yoghurts, a packet of cream, some garlic and a few packets of biscuits. Her bill, she said, would be $5 million.

Bakers blamed the rocketing bread price on wheat shortages and soaring costs of ingredients and petrol.

The new notes are strictly speaking not currency but "bearer cheques" signed by Gideon Gono, the governor of the central bank. They carry an expiry date of Dec 31, 2006.

Beside the watermark is an image of Victoria Falls. One Zimbabwean said that, turned upside-down, the picture resembled a bush fire, which he compared to the economic policies of the president, Robert Mugabe.

Observers say that Mr Mugabe, 82, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, is responsible for his country's economic meltdown. Unemployment stands at 70 per cent and tens of thousands of Zimbabweans attempt to flee across the South African border every month.

Yesterday the International Crisis Group, a think-tank based in Brussels, warned that political tensions had left Mr Mugabe's government "increasingly desperate and dangerous".

Peter Kagwanja, the group's southern Africa director, advocated continued international pressure on the regime in the form of "targeted sanctions directed at the Zanu-PF leaders who are driving Zimbabwe to ruin".

Despite the hardship, there is no shortage of food in Zimbabwe following April's successful maize harvest but even the basic diet is beyond the pocket of most people.

"I can only afford this," said a shrivelled man holding a small pack of beef fat. "This will be all I eat today as there is no food at home."

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