New Zimbabwe $10B note buys bread
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Zimbabwe’s central bank introduced a $10 billion note worth less than 20 U.S. dollars, as the once-prosperous southern African nation battles against spiraling hyperinflation.
The new note, expected to buy just 20 loaves of bread, comes just a week after Zimbabwe issued a $500 million note to ease a cash shortage.
Zimbabwe has slashed zeros from the amount of its worthless currency during the past two years — the latest being 10 zeros in August.
Once one of Africa’s most promising economies, Zimbabwe is reeling under its worst humanitarian and economic crisis. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,000 Zimbabweans since August, forcing hundreds to cross the border into South Africa and Botswana to seek treatment.
Five million people are in need of food aid in a nation that once exported food to its neighbors, the United Nations says.
Read full story from edition.cnn.comadmin @ December 20, 2008