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Hyperinflation – 10 Worst Cases
Inflation is hot property today, hyperinflation is even hotter! We think we are modern, contemporary, smart and ready to deal with anything. We’ve got that seen-it-all-before, been-there-done-it attitude. But, we are not a patch on what some countries have been through in the worst cases of hyperinflation in history. Here’s the top 10 list of worst cases in history. We’ll start with the worst first…let’s think positive!
Hungary 1946
Inflation at its peak reached a staggering figure of 13.6 quadrillion % per month! That’s 13, 600, 000, 000, 000, 000%. The largest denomination bill was a 100 Quintillion note. Prices ended up doubling every 15 hours at the time.
Zimbabwe 2008
Prices doubled here every 24.7 hours in November 2008 and inflation reached levels of 79 billion-odd %. They eventually stopped using the official currency and switched to the South African Rand or the $US. A loaf of bread ended up costing $35 million. This is the most recent case. It was Mugabe’s land-redistribution program that caused this.
Yugoslavia 1994
In just the one month of January 1994 inflation rose by 313 million %. Prices doubled every 34 hours (which is nothing compared to Hungary). The currency ended up getting revalued 5 times in all between 1993 and 1995, all to no avail. The cause? A recession triggered by overseas borrowing and an on-going political struggle in the 1980s and the following decade.
Germany 1923
Adolf Hitler rose to power as a consequence of hyperinflationary pressure (at least one of the reasons). Prices doubled every 3.7 days and inflation stood at 29, 500%. Germany was crippled with the reparation payments after the Treaty of Versailles and the end of World War I.
Greece 1944
Prices started rising by 13, 800% in October 1944 and they doubled every 4.3 days. The trouble was the debt incurred by World War II.
Poland 1921
Prices rose in 1921 by 251 times in comparison with those of 1914. They doubled every 19.5 days. The Zloty was introduced as the new currency in 1924 in an attempt to start afresh. Inflation stood at 988, 233% in 1924.
Mexico 1982
Mexico had a rate of inflation of 10, 000% in 1982 (due mainly to too much social expenditure).
Brazil 1994
Inflation was 2, 075.8% at its worst in 1994. The Real was adopted in 1994 and it managed to calm inflation down.
Argentina 1981
The highest denomination bill was the one million pesos note. The Peso was revalued three times.
Taiwan 1949
This was a knock-on effect from China and the Chinese Civil War. The New Taiwan Dollar was issued in June 1949. The monthly rate of inflation stood at 399%
Inflation can be creeping (mild or moderate inflation) or galloping. We can talk of Hyperinflation and stagflation (inflation and recession). Deflation is not better. We have so many names for it.
Hyperinflation means prices doubling in such a short space of time that we can’t keep up with it all. Hyperinflation comes about at times of trouble, war, conflict, upheaval, change on unprecedented levels. It comes about because we still haven’t learnt how to control it. History repeats itself, we hear people say. Thankfully, it doesn’t repeat itself too often. Fingers crossed.
14 Comments on "Hyperinflation – 10 Worst Cases"
Makati1 on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 1:29 am
Can’t wait to get my first billion dollar bill and be a billionaire! Even if it will not buy a loaf of bread. ^_^
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 2:09 am
Well, the above covers individual countries within a generally healthy world economy so somewhere else there is sanity. Somewhere else there were dollars or some currency that was solid. What is going to happen when there is no currency that is not in some state of hyper inflation globally. Hyper inflation is just another word for currency collapse or a complete loss of confidence or finally collapse
DC on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 3:19 am
What a lousy article, not even listed by date. Most of the ‘reasons’ given are pure fabrication. Land redistribution a cause for hyperinflation? I dont think so. But it sure sounds scary doesnt it? Take away the US backed neo-liberal elites cash export slave plantations, and suffer hyper-inflation. Safer to leave the elites alone….
Many of the other ‘claims’ are equally dodgy. Why mention Hitler in the context of its inflationary problems? True, A.Hitler did exploit the situation for political gain(who wouldn’t?), but he didnt cause it, or have anything to do with its origins.
But I guess for the writer, that Hitler+Land Redistribution+Social Spending=1000% hyper-inflation tie-in was just too good to pass up eh?
Never let the facts get in the way while creating your straw-man….
deedl on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 6:24 am
@DC Of course it is not listed by date, because it is the top 10 inflations, so it is listed by the inflation rate 😉
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 11:57 am
Ditto Deedl,
DC I think you are from a place north of the US, I could be wrong but I saw somewhere you mentioned Quebec. Anyway you tell me anywhere that is a “Nirvana” of people, values, and location and I am moving. It is all the same these days in the global world. That is what is so unfortunate about globalism. Why bash the US when it is in every corner of the globe. Damn I see some funky stuff going down to the north of us also. We Americans are a mess but come on should we be singled out for retribution and “fire and brimstone warnings” you and a few others here heap on us Americans on a daily basis. I already know about the crimes. It is old news
Maybe you are just a “shit disturber” type and enjoy bashing?????
J-Gav on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 1:03 pm
In any case, hyperinflation is not for next week anywhere in the ‘developed’ world. A number of places – Japan, the EU, seem much more primed for a deeper bout of deflation first.
The problem being that, what inflation there is, ie energy and some key commodities, falls on the least able to deal with it … Still, “hyper” it is not, though that could happen down the line.
rollin on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 1:33 pm
Food did it, fuel did it, houses did it, that is doubled and more in a very short space of time right here in the US.
We could use a good dose of inflation to pay off all those debts with cheap money. Imagine paying off your debts for pennies on the dollar. Of course, I am being sarcastic but that’s the way it works. People get hurt in the process though.
Right now we have pseudo-stagflation and hidden inflation with some areas actually inflating during a falling economy. Nasty. We needed a good drop in prices overall, but other forces, some real some just greed and bad money policy, kept things inflating.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 1:44 pm
I agree J-Gav, the globalism end game will not be “hyper” inflation although that situational development in enough locations may be part of it.
Rollin agreed, I think secretly we are seeing the inflation trick being used by the PTB. The poor down the ladder are the ones getting dribbles while the fat cats get the fine wine.
bobinget on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 8:12 pm
I’ve got to get up earlier. rollin on, once again steals
my best material.
I doubt we can have WW hyperinflation when central banks are totally absorbed with Deflation. Japan
should be a poster girl for Deflation. Three of the world’s largest economies, US, China and Japan are printing money like never before despratly seeking ANY inflation, forget hyper. How else are we to screw bondholders but with higher inflation?
Controlling oil and gas prices seems to be first order of business today. If you are looking for inflation, look no further than oil and gas support business.
BigOil after BigOil are reporting diminished earnings
not as much from finding and producing less oil, there is that, but how much E&P is costing.
Crude is pennies away from the magic $100 a barrel
that makes going after new oil profitable.
I can’t wait to see what happens. All the old rules are out the window.
Null Hypothesis on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 8:12 pm
Hermann Davy said: “What is going to happen when there is no currency that is not in some state of hyper inflation globally.”
There is another currency, it’s called physical gold. “Everyone” outside of North America, especially in Asia, appreciates its worth and understands the fundamental worthlessness of western paper currencies.
China is busy buying up America’s historic gold stores at suppressed prices and when there is no more gold available to buy (seems to be pretty soon based on the desperate acts they’re engaged in now), then they won’t be able to stop a gold price spike and that will be the signal to get out of dollars.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 11:40 pm
Null, China is buying up gold from the west and keeping their large production is well known just follow Max Kieser. I don’t believe the US has sold off its gold like the UK. Having a reserve currency there is no need. It is very possible the FED has leased its gold out. We see the same situation at JPM and the bullion banks. There is some real shenanigans going on there. There will be many with paper gold who desire their physical gold back from these bullion banks but the vaults will be empty.
I have read there may be a global currency in the works backed by gold with the major gold holders participating. The poop is gold prices are being kept low to allow China time to buy up enough to play an important role in that currency.
Any of you prep-ers should consider 1/10 oz gold coins for trade and barter.
Null Hypothesis on Sat, 8th Feb 2014 12:14 am
It seems the import numbers to China alone are all of global mine production. The world is “consuming” twice the mine production of 2,000 tonnes, so that excess has to come from somewhere. The only place with that much gold is the Fed (and how come the Fed controls this gold? It belongs to the American people). Supposedly the US had 8,000 tonnes, how much of that remains now? That’s only a few years’ worth of Asian demand, assuming they even had 8,000 to begin with.
They are obviously not willing to give any up unless they desperately have to which suggests that 1) they are out of gold and have to scrounge for it, 2) they still have a thousand tonnes or so and are doing everything they can to keep it before the global system gets reset. In the case of #2, it could happen Monday morning for all we know, because one day they will drop the axe. In the case of #1, it could also happen any day but it may take a few weeks for reality to set in.
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Feb 2014 3:41 am
When Germany asked for it’s gold back and the US said you can have it, but it will take 7 years … maybe we should be concerned about what the US government thinks is going to happen before then so that they never have to give it back, if they even have it. That is about 2020, my cutoff date for humanity as we know it. I’ve increased my preparations, have you?
rollin on Sat, 8th Feb 2014 4:53 pm
Bob, sorry to steal your thunder.
Rules? What rules. Look at financial history, there never were any real rules for the rich and greedy. They always find a way to con the game and lately even get away with directly breaking the rules (and get federal funding for it afterward).
It’s been a game who controls the government for a long time. Back in the second half of the 19th century it was the railroads (who also controlled a lot of the coal companies). Mid 20th century on it was the oil companies and the banks (financial institutions) grabbing the reigns.
In a few years the peasants with torches will take over again, for a while until they get fat and lazy once more.