Hyper Inflation in Zimbabwe

Readers Question: If inflation is too much money, too few goods then how come…..Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate, at more than 100,000%, and just one adult in five is believed to have a regular job? With no job, no money so no demand so…why inflation?

I don’t have much information on the Zimbabwe economy but a likely explanation for the situation in Zimbabwe could be the government printing money and thereby increasing the money supply much faster than Real GDP.

A few years ago, national debt in Zimbabwe increased to over 100% of GDP. To finance the National Debt, the Government started printing money; but, this only devalued the value of existing money and caused prices to rise.

The inflation is also exacerbated by a shortage of supply. Because basic goods are in short supply it is easy for market prices to be increased causing a spiral effect of upwardly rising prices.

Ironically, this shortage of supply has been made worse by the imposition of price controls. These fix prices for basic goods. But, because the cost of production has been increasing faster than prices, suppliers have little incentive to supply (at least to official channels). This makes the shortage worse and therefore the likelyhood of inflation stronger.

• Note: I think that there is ‘weak demand’ rather than ‘no demand’ Some people still have the ability to buy goods; the problem is that the supply of goods is still less than the very ‘weak’ demand.
• Also, the thing here is that there is little ‘effective demand’. i.e. people want to purchase goods, they just don’t have the necessary income to be able to do it. Leading to tragic consequences such as Funeral Costs soar

Causes of Inflation MV=PY

The Monetarist explanation of inflation is that prices are linked to growth in the Money Supply.  The quantity theory of Money states MV=PY. If we assume a constant V (velocity of circulation) and Constant Y, an increase in the Money supply leads to an increase in prices. In practise, the link between the money supply and inflation is not as simplistic as this formula states; but, as a rough rule of thumb if the money supply increases by 1000% and Real GDP stays the same you can expect inflation of around 1000%

Mugabe’s Explanation of Inflation

I believe Mugabe once blamed inflation on ‘Greedy businesses’ demanding price rises. This encouraged him to set up price controls. But, as mentioned these have been ineffective in preventing inflation.

Other Mugabe supporters have tried to blame the inflation as a ‘Western Import’. Although this assertion is rather bizarre given that inflation is relatively low in Western economies.

• Causes of Inflation
•  Zimbabwe inflation passes 100,000% at Guardian