Inflation in Zimbabwe rose to 10.61 percent in 2018, and is projected to jump dramatically to 577.21 percent in 2020. After that, estimates predict a slow decline for now - however, given Zimbabwe’s history of poor monetary policy, including one of the worst instances of hyperinflation, this seems unrealistic.

Inflation history

Inflation depends significantly on economic expectations of it, making it hard to reduce inflation once it has hit higher levels. This happened in Zimbabwe in the years approaching 2008, at the end of which a single U.S. dollar was worth over 2.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars, up from 10,000 Zimbabwe dollars at the start of 2005. This all but destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy, leading to very low gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and a government struggling to finance itself.

The way ahead

In 2009, the Zimbabwean dollar had twelve zeros slashed from the banknotes. This was not enough, and after three decades of rule, former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was removed from power at the end of 2017. Citizens of the country are trying to hold foreign banknotes; they prefer U.S. dollars or euros, but the South African rand is more common. However, the rand’s performance against other currencies has been lackluster in recent years. This underscores the struggle that the Zimbabwean people have to find a stable currency at the moment.

The Consumer Price Index in Zimbabwe increased 0.50 percent in February of 2025 over the previous month. This dataset provides - Zimbabwe Inflation Rate MoM- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

At the end of 2023, Zimbabwe had the highest inflation rate in the world, at 667.36 percent change compared to the previous year. Inflation in industrialized and in emerging countries Higher inflation rates are more present in less developed economies, as they often lack a sufficient central banking system, which in turn results in the manipulation of currency to achieve short term economic goals. Thus, interest rates increase while the general economic situation remains constant. In more developed economies and in the prime emerging markets, the inflation rate does not fluctuate as sporadically. Additionally, the majority of countries that maintained the lowest inflation rate compared to previous years are primarily oil producers or small island independent states. These countries experienced deflation, which occurs when the inflation rate falls below zero; this may happen for a variety of factors, such as a shift in supply or demand of goods and services, or an outflow of capital.

This dataset provides values for INFLATION RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The benchmark interest rate in Zimbabwe was last recorded at 35 percent. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Zimbabwe Interest Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

At 8.07 U.S. dollars, Switzerland has the most expensive Big Macs in the world, according to the July 2024 Big Mac index. Concurrently, the cost of a Big Mac was 5.69 dollars in the U.S., and 6.06 U.S. dollars in the Euro area. What is the Big Mac index? The Big Mac index, published by The Economist, is a novel way of measuring whether the market exchange rates for different countries’ currencies are overvalued or undervalued. It does this by measuring each currency against a common standard – the Big Mac hamburger sold by McDonald’s restaurants all over the world. Twice a year the Economist converts the average national price of a Big Mac into U.S. dollars using the exchange rate at that point in time. As a Big Mac is a completely standardized product across the world, the argument goes that it should have the same relative cost in every country. Differences in the cost of a Big Mac expressed as U.S. dollars therefore reflect differences in the purchasing power of each currency. Is the Big Mac index a good measure of purchasing power parity? Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the idea that items should cost the same in different countries, based on the exchange rate at that time. This relationship does not hold in practice. Factors like tax rates, wage regulations, whether components need to be imported, and the level of market competition all contribute to price variations between countries. The Big Mac index does measure this basic point – that one U.S. dollar can buy more in some countries than others. There are more accurate ways to measure differences in PPP though, which convert a larger range of products into their dollar price. Adjusting for PPP can have a massive effect on how we understand a country’s economy. The country with the largest GDP adjusted for PPP is China, but when looking at the unadjusted GDP of different countries, the U.S. has the largest economy.

Zimbabwe GNP for 2023 was 29.08 billion US dollars, a 3.83% increase from 2022.

• Zimbabwe GNP for 2022 was 28.00 billion US dollars, a 14.05% increase from 2021.
• Zimbabwe GNP for 2021 was 24.55 billion US dollars, a 7.41% increase from 2020.
• Zimbabwe GNP for 2020 was 22.86 billion US dollars, a 2.58% increase from 2019.

GNI (formerly GNP) is the sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad. Data are in current U.S. dollars. GNI, calculated in national currency, is usually converted to U.S. dollars at official exchange rates for comparisons across economies, although an alternative rate is used when the official exchange rate is judged to diverge by an exceptionally large margin from the rate actually applied in international transactions. To smooth fluctuations in prices and exchange rates, a special Atlas method of conversion is used by the World Bank. This applies a conversion factor that averages the exchange rate for a given year and the two preceding years, adjusted for differences in rates of inflation between the country, and through 2000, the G-5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States). From 2001, these countries include the Euro area, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.