Tag Archives | Economy

Once the bread basket of southern Africa and a country with a flourishing tourism industry, the economy of Zimbabwe collapsed between 1998 and 2009. Hyperinflation forced people to shop for bread with 100 Trillion Zimbabwean Dollar bills, the price tags in supermarkets could not be exchanged fast enough. Not to mention the massive shortage of almost all staple goods. Reasons for this disaster were manifold, but the widest international media coverage received Mugabe expelling white farmers and distributing the land to his cronies. Local farmers gained next to nothing from so these called “land reforms”, and actually the country’s black population suffered the most. When agricultural production dropped at an alarming pace and tourism came to a standstill, Mugabe started the printing press. In 10 years, the reserve bank cancelled 25 (!!!) zeros on bank notes. Continue Reading →