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News

The Daily

U.S.-Zimbabwe Exchange Rate Now 35 Quadrillion to 1

By:
Chris Gaetano
Published Date:
Jun 12, 2015
Zimbabwe_100_TRILLION_przódThe nation of Zimbabwe, which has experienced years of runaway hyper-inflation, now has a currency exchange rate of, literally, 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars to 1 U.S. dollar, which has led to the country to formally take their own currency out of circulation, according to Bloomberg. It is a number that dwarfs even the estimated number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, a paltry 100-400 billion. It is a lot of dollars. 

Which is why, for the most part, people in Zimbabwe don't even use their own currency for most everyday transactions, preferring instead to deal in U.S. dollars or South African rands to meet their needs, which makes the complete decommissioning of the Zimbabwean dollar more of a formality at this point, according to Bloomberg. Right now, the central bank is offering 5 U.S. dollars for every 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars so as to hasten its removal from circulation. 

At this point, Zimbabwean dollars are more valuable as novelty items than as currency: on eBay, 10 trillion dollar notes are being sold for about 10 U.S. dollars, or 350 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.