The central bank of Zimbabwe scrapped the country's national currency on Friday and started using the U.S. dollar. The Zimbabwean dollar has for the past decade become more and more worthless because of spiralling inflation. Hyperinflation peaked at an incredible 500 billion per cent in 2008. Since then, Zimbabweans began seeking financial security in the U.S. dollar. Economists estimate that today, 90 per cent of the economy is based on the U.S. dollar. People have until September to exchange their remaining local currency for the U.S. dollar. The official exchange rate is one U.S. dollar to 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars. That's 35 followed by 15 zeroes.
津巴布韋央行周五廢除了津巴布韋元,而改為使用美元。由于通貨膨脹,過去十年間,津巴布韋元變得越來越不值錢。2008年,津巴布韋的惡性通貨膨脹達到了驚人的百分之5000億。從那時起,津巴布韋開始在美元上尋求安全。經(jīng)濟學(xué)家預(yù)測稱如今經(jīng)濟中的90%都依賴于美元。在9月份之前,人們都可以將剩余的本國貨幣換成美元。官方匯率為1美元換取35千萬億津元。35換取15個“零”。
All is not lost for the old Zimbabwean dollar. The large number of zeroes that make up each denomination of the bills is making them a collector's item online. On the auction site eBay, a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note is getting up to US$35 from bidders. This is nearly one hundred times more than the 40 U.S. cents the bill is officially worth in a bank. One hundred trillion is one followed by 14 zeroes. The 100 trillion dollar bill used to be able to buy a weekly bus ticket. One enterprising Zimbabwean has decided to cash in on the old currency by selling it to tourists. Shadreck Gutuza, a former currency trader, said it was a waste of time to cash it in at the banks when tourists will buy the notes for US$20.
這對于津元來說并不都是壞事。去貨幣化所帶來的“零戶頭”將讓津元成為網(wǎng)上的收藏產(chǎn)品。在eBay的拍賣網(wǎng)站上,100萬億津元的最高拍價為35美元。這比40美分的銀行價值還高出了將近100倍。100萬億將得到14個“零”。以前,100萬億津元能夠買到一周的公交車票。一位有想象力的津巴布韋人決定通過將舊幣售賣給游客來兌現(xiàn)。前外匯交易商Shadreck·Gutuza稱在銀行兌現(xiàn)是耽誤時間,因為游客會出20美元來購買舊幣。