Zimbabwe exchanges 250,000,000,000,000 local dollars for US$1

12/06 08:46 CET

If you suffer from Arithmophobia (fear of numbers) you might want to stop reading now.
The Zimbabwean central bank is offering to convert Zimbabwean dollars into the foreign currency which in practice has been the only way of buying anything in the country for years.
Customers can exchange 250,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars for 1 US dollar, according to the Guardian.
To put that in context, if you earned a Zimbabwean dollar for every second of your life, you would have 1 US cent by the time you reached the age of 79,275 (yes that’s seventynine thousand two hundred and seventyfive).

However, if your money is in the bank already, or was printed after 2009 when foreign currency became officially accepted in the country, the exchange rate is not quite so good and you will need 35,000,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars to get one US dollar.
As a special offer, however, if your account has less than 175 quadrillion (175,000,000,000,000,000) in it, you can get $5 straight up.

You need to change your money before September or it is liable to become worthless.
The highest note Zimbabwe ever issued was the 100 trillion, now popular as a tourist souvenir but worth only 40 US cents.

source @ http://www.euronews.com/2015/06/12/zimbabwe-exchanges-250000000000000-local-dollars-for-us-dollar-1/
  
Zimbabwe slashes 16 zeros from currency but dollar still a joke

From next Monday Zimbabweans with have their mental arithmetic simplified for them with the news some zeros are coming off the currency.

Quite a lot of zeros. No less than 16, as the federal reserve attempts to end funny money by offering one new Zimbabwe dollar in exchange for 35 quadrillion old ones.

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However the real hyperinflation rate is in fact worse. The money being replaced was only issued in 2008, when the exchange rate was one for 10 billion. The real hyperinflation rate has 25 zeroes attached.

This is now hyperinflation an elderly German would recognise, with all its attendant risks.
Since 2009 the dollar and other foreign currencies have been vital for Zimbabwe to remain afloat as confidence in the local currency and government’s economic policy of continually printing money has collapsed.

From being a nation of multi-billionaires Zimbabweans will be much poorer from next week; but then most people knew that already.

source @ http://www.euronews.com/2015/06/12/zimbabwe-slashes-16-zeros-from-currency-but-dollar-still-a-joke/