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What does a $100 trillion note look like?

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Q-photo-zimbabwe-currency-ten-million-dollars

I blogged last year about Zimbabwe and their issues.

Back then, ZW$10 million notes sounded like a lot:

Q-photo-zimbabwe-currency-ten-million-dollars

but they are not. 

Today this note is worth just nothing in the local economy which is why, last June, the National Bank of Zimbabwe released the ZW$100 billion note:

Zimbabe-hundred-billion-dollar-note

but ZW$100 billion is only enough to buy a couple of loaves of bread, according to the National Post

Back then, we all thought this massive denomination banknote would deal with the country's roaring hyperinflation, which reached around 2,200,000% officially, although economists reckoned it was up at around 12.5 million percent!

This is why, today, the Zimbabwe Government issued the $100 trillion note:

Af.reuters.com

Source: Reuters

Worth about US$300 at today's exchange rates, the trillion dollar note is a waste of time as it will just by replaced by a gazillion dollar note next year.

It's not a waste of time for the Zimbabwean people however, who are suffering massively and only survive thanks to access to the US dollar.

I guess there is no statement to make here, other than that some of us wish the United Nations would intervene and sort the situation out.

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Chris M Skinner

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...