THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pegged Zimbabwe’s inflation for January at more than 150 000 percent as the economy continues to crumble.

In a document which was circulated to Non Governmental Organisations yesterday, the IMF said the current rate was the same rate reached by Germany during the Weimar Republic in the 1920s in the post-First World War era.

Although the document has not been released officially, it was availed to government and RBZ officials who attended an IMF seminar as part of a lecture package before the international monetary institution can engage the government on the proposed economic austerity measures to rescue the economy from collapse.

The document said by November 2007 Zimbabwe’s inflation had reached 85 000 percent which is almost the same level that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reached in November 1993.

The IMF also said Zimbabwe’s inflation had reached 115 000 percent by December last year.

Zimbabwe is the only country that has reached such alarming inflation levels since the mid 1990s. The government has refused to release inflation figures for the past eight months, ostensibly to hold down the prices of basic commodities. That plan is collapsing as businesses now use their own inflation figures to raise prices.

Meanwhile, a U.S. economist Steve Hanke who is an expert on monetary systems and how to fix them, has written a book, "Zimbabwe, Hyperinflation to Growth," which is set to be released in Harare in a few weeks. The book deals with issues related to how the current inflation inferno can be tamed.

Hanke has served on the Council of Economic Advisors of President Ronald Reagan, and has given counsel to a number of countries in distress, including Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Venezuela and the former Yugoslavia, whose inflation was even higher than Zimbabwe's.

150,000 or 1,000,000 %? It does not matter while Mugabe continues with his "vodoonomics". While Mugabe and his Government may not like what they refer to as "bookish" economics (which are basically all sane and rational economic meausures to stabilise the economy) the time is not far that there won't be any affordable books in Zimbabwe left.

What books, Uncle Paul? My info has it that most of the schools sit with books that are way more outdated than even those at some of our rural schools (and yes, I have seen the latter).

Pray tell me: How many zeros (noughts) did the IMF leave out???