What happens when racism and socialism join forces? Zimbabwe:
Zimbabwe’s chief statistician has said it is impossible to work out the country’s latest inflation rate because of the lack of goods in shops.
“There are too many data gaps,” the Central Statistical Office’s Moffat Nyoni told state media.
Many staple goods are often absent from shop shelves after the government ordered prices to be halved or frozen in a bid to stem galloping inflation.
September’s inflation rate was put at almost 8,000%, the world’s highest.
Other reports suggest the rate could be at near 15,000% and the International Monetary Fund had warned it could reach 100,000% by the end of the year.
The inflation rate is growing exponentially. Sweet Pete, man.
Last month, the central bank offered loans, known as Bacossis, to businesses at 25% interest to restore supplies to shops, AP news agency reports.
That sentence is interesting. In America, 25% is more akin to the default rate on a credit card than the rate of a government-funded loan. In Zimbabwe, no matter how much money you borrow, it will be worthless by the end of next month, so 25% of nothing is nothing. Why anyone would take out such a loan, why the government would expect to be paid back (“You owe us nothing plus 25%, so pay up!”), and how pumping the full of economy bellow inflation rate loans will help matters are questions we’ll just have to chalk up to the wondrous mystery that is Robert Mugabe.
(H/T)
Posted by Apollo in Commie Recrudescence, Those Wacky Foreigners