Depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar against the US dollar and other foreign currencies has been accelerating in recent days, driving the prices of all commodities higher and feeding hyperinflation which is already over an annual 1,700%.

The U.S. dollar now fetches Z$25,000 on the parallel currency market although the official exchange rate has remained stuck at $250 dollars since last July. As recently as two weeks ago the U.S. currency was trading around Z$10,000. The South African rand is trading at Z$3,000 and the British pound changes hands at Z$47,000.

The price of fuel, which moves in tandem with the parallel market exchange rate, has surged to Z$16,000 to Z$25,000 for one liter. 

The Zimbabwe dollar's latest plunge suggests the recent prediction by International Monetary Fund Africa Director Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane that inflation in Zimbabwe might top 5,000% by the end of this year might not be very far off the mark.

Harare economist James Jowa told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the collapse of the currency reflects the effective disappearance of export revenues which once brought hard currency into Zimbabwe.

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