vny!://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=2df85237-fe8d-49a6-830d-5b55c0df4ddd
Linky to full story above.
[div class="storyheader"][h2]Get rich fast in Zimbabwe[/h2][h4]Turning $100 US into $65,000 US is easy enough, if you know how to go about it[/h4][/div][div class="feed_details"][h4]Tendai C. Mutseyekwa, Special to The Sun[/h4][span]Published: Thursday, October 09, 2008[/span][/div]HARARE -- The unprecedented economic chaos in Zimbabwe has come as a blessing in disguise for those able to exploit loopholes in the government's command-economy policies.[/p]The country's highly regulated foreign currency market, which prohibits formal trading of the Zimbabwe dollar, suffers an acute cash shortage. Annual inflation is estimated at 30 million per cent, and the central bank is in the habit of flooding the black market with worthless Zimbabwe dollars in order to buy up U.S. dollars. As a result, any Zimbabwean money sitting in a bank is practically useless. Depositors can legally withdraw a mere $20,000 Zm a day in cash, if there is cash on hand to be had. At the end of last week that was the price of two loaves of bread, $7 US at the official rate.[/p]Things get more expensive by the minute. The longer money in this debased economy sits in an account, the less valuable it becomes.[/p]Because of the withdrawal limits, there are in effect three rates of exchange. The official rate ($1 US to $175 Zm) is more or less academic. There is the black market, where one American dollar was recently worth $1,000 Zm.[/p]And then there is the bank transfer rate, which places a value on inaccessible money locked up in a bank account. You have to write a cheque for 650,000 Zm to equal the spending power of a single U.S. dollar -- if you can find someone willing to take it. But there is a catch.[/p]Suppose a depositor hands the bank some foreign currency -- say $100 US. This sum will buy $100,000 Zm on the street, but the bank is willing to pay much more to obtain the hard currency --$65 million Zm in fact.[/p]The downside is that apart from the tiny daily withdrawal limit, the Zimbabwean money stays sequestered in the depositor's account, locked in an inflationary death spiral as prices rise by 15,000 per cent a week.[/p]But the country's central bank allows citizens to apply for special dispensation letting them withdraw above the maximum for certain things. A medical prescription will do the trick, or proof that one is purchasing building supplies.[/p]Government officials, unlike average citizens, are reputed to encounter remarkable success in obtaining dispensation. For those who can obtain the paperwork for a large withdrawal, the next step is to take out all the money in local currency and sell it on the black market at the rate of $1,000 Zm per greenback.[/p]In the example above, the $100 US original deposit becomes $65 million Zm in real cash that is then converted on the street to $65,000 US. The profit: a cool $64,900 US.[/p]
[/p]Rest of the story in the link at the top of the page.
