Zimbabwe's inflation rate jumps to record 66,212%

The annual increase in the cost of living in Zimbabwe reached an astronomical 66,212 per cent in the last month of 2007, according to official statistics.

The country's Central Statistical Office released the figureto local banks on Thursday and it was reported by the state Herald newspaper.

That was triple the inflation rate of a month earlier. The figure means that prices increased more than 660-fold fromthe prioryearwhich amounts toan average of 1.8 per centevery day.

As seriousas that is, that's just the official rate. Unofficially, inflation isbelieved to be much higher.

In January, the International Monetary Fund pegged Zimbabwe's inflation rate at150,000 per cent.

Zimbabwe's economy has been in a shambles for eight years, with the world's highest inflation rate, a poverty rate approaching 80 per cent and a severe shortageofgoods in its stores.

By some accounts, an estimated three million Zimbabweans have fled to other countries.

The country's controversial president, Robert Mugabe,is blamed themost for the crisis. His seizure of white-owned farms in 2000preceded a collapse in agriculture;the situationworsened from there.

His government's economic policies have steadily fanned the fires ofhyperinflation as it sought to finance its operations byprinting huge amounts of currency.

Price controls introduced last June only added to the problems, as companies stopped making goods rather than be forced to sell them for less than they cost to make.

A black market in currency exchange is rampant, blackouts are routine and cash is in short supply.Reports say many businesses now pay their workers in food.

The government recently introduced a $10-million note. That's not enough to buy a kilogram of chicken.

Mugabe has blamed the country's economic problems on "illegal" sanctions imposed by the West.His rulingZanu-PF party facesnational elections in six weeks.