<Tr> <Td> 1984 </Td> <Td> 10% </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> 17% </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> 16% </Td> <Td> 2002 </Td> <Td> 198.93% </Td> <Td> 2008 Jul . </Td> <Td> 231,150,888.87% </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1985 </Td> <Td> 10% </Td> <Td> 1991 </Td> <Td> 48% </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> 20% </Td> <Td> 2003 </Td> <Td> 598.75% </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> Over the course of the five - year span of hyperinflation, the inflation rate fluctuated greatly . At one point, the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe predicted that it would reach 1.5 million percent . In June 2008 the annual rate of price growth was 11.2 million percent . The worst of the inflation occurred in 2008, leading to the abandonment of the currency . The peak month of hyperinflation occurred in mid-November 2008 with a rate estimated at 79,600,000,000% per month . This resulted in US $1 becoming equivalent to the staggering sum of Z $2,621,984,228 . </P> <P> As hyperinflation accelerated, the value of the Zimbabwe dollar declined fast against other currencies, yet official exchange rates published by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe were infrequently updated; this made it impossible to tell from an official source how much the Zimbabwe dollar was really worth against other currencies on a particular day, which in turn disrupted international business transactions involving Zimbabwe dollars . Staff from WM / Reuters devised an indirect means of measurement that was termed the Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR). This took the daily price of shares in the insurance company Old Mutual that traded in the London and Harare stock markets and derived from it a notional daily exchange rate between the Zimbabwe dollar and the pound . Shares had much less strict capital controls than through the Zimbabwe banking system, so the shares were used as a vehicle for moving capital between currencies by buying stock in either London or Harare and then selling in the other location . </P>

In early 2008 the central bank of zimbabwe announced the inflation rate in that country had reached