Glossary · Economy
Hyperinflation
Hyperinflation is inflation out of control: prices rise by 50% or more a month, so money loses almost all its value within months.
Also called: runaway inflation
Consumer prices in Zimbabwe in 2008 (IMF).
Venezuela. Economies above 50% a year: 5 (IMF).
In plain words
Imagine a loaf of bread costs $2 on Monday, $3 by Friday and $10 by the end of the month. Your savings, your wages, the cash in your pocket all melt away. That is hyperinflation: inflation so fast that money stops working.
The usual definition, from the economist Phillip Cagan, is prices rising more than 50% in a single month. At that pace prices multiply about 130 times in a year.
It is rare and almost always has the same root: a government that pays its bills by printing money (money printing), often after a war, a revolution or a collapse of its exports. The worst year in the IMF and World Bank data is Zimbabwe in 2008, when prices rose 231 million percent.
Example
Doubling every few weeks
Hyperinflation compounds like interest, but against your cash.
- At 50% a month, $100 worth of shopping costs $150 after one month, $225 after two and about $13,000 after a year.
- Cash loses value just as fast: $100 kept for a year buys what 77 cents bought at the start.
- In 2018, prices in Venezuela rose 65,374% in one year: they multiplied about 655 times.
That is why people in a hyperinflation spend their wages the moment they get them, and switch to dollars, gold or goods.
One level deeper
How does it start? A government spends far more than it collects and can no longer borrow, so the central bank prints the money. More money chasing the same goods pushes prices up; people expect more, spend faster, and money loses value faster still. Taxes collected later are worth less, so the deficit grows and more printing follows.
History’s famous cases: Germany in 1923, where prices doubled every few days at the peak; Hungary in 1946, the worst ever recorded, when prices doubled about every 15 hours; Zimbabwe in 2008, which ended up printing a 100-trillion-dollar note; and Venezuela after 2016.
It usually ends with a new currency, a central bank people can trust and a budget that no longer needs the printing press. Some countries simply adopt another currency: Zimbabwe switched to the US dollar and others in 2009.
The worst years of inflation on record
How many times prices doubled within one calendar year, in each economy’s worst year in the IMF and World Bank data. Ten doublings means prices rose about a thousandfold.
The numbers behind the chart
| Doublings of prices in one year | |
|---|---|
| Zimbabwe 2008 | 21.1 |
| Venezuela 2018 | 9.4 |
| DR Congo 1994 | 7.9 |
| Nicaragua 1987 | 7.0 |
| Bolivia 1985 | 6.9 |
| Peru 1990 | 6.2 |
| Armenia 1994 | 5.7 |
| Ukraine 1993 | 5.6 |
| Angola 1996 | 5.4 |
| Turkmenistan 1993 | 5.0 |
Why it matters
It wipes out savings and pensions held in the local currency, often within months, and hits hardest the people who have no dollars or property.
Prices stop carrying information: shops reprice several times a day, contracts break down, and the economy shrinks.
It is the main reason central banks are made independent of governments, and why most of them aim for low, steady inflation.
A common mistake
Myth: Hyperinflation is just very high inflation, like 20% a year.
In fact: 20% a year is high inflation. Hyperinflation is roughly 50% a month, a pace that multiplies prices about 130 times in a year. In 2025, 5 of 195 economies had inflation above 50% a year (IMF).
Questions people ask
What causes hyperinflation?
Almost always a government financing big deficits by printing money when it can no longer borrow, often after a war, a revolution, sanctions or a collapse of its exports.
Which country had the worst hyperinflation?
Hungary in 1946 holds the record: prices doubled about every 15 hours. In the yearly IMF and World Bank data the worst year is Zimbabwe in 2008 (231 million percent), followed by Venezuela in 2018 (65,374%).
Can hyperinflation happen in the US?
The US is not among the recorded cases; the closest it came was the Continental currency of the Revolutionary War, which lost almost all its value. Today its debt is borrowed in its own currency. Economists see it as very unlikely while the central bank is independent and the government can borrow.
Read more on BigCapital
About the numbers
- The numbers on this page are recalculated from the data every night; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
- Inflation, average consumer prices: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database (October 2026), https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PCPIPCH@WEO; via the IMF DataMapper API, indicator PCPIPCH (Inflation rate, average consumer prices, Annual percent change).
- Inflation, consumer prices: The World Bank: World Development Indicators: Inflation, consumer prices (annual % growth) (FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG). Original source: International Financial Statistics database, International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- Yearly averages hide the monthly peaks: in Zimbabwe’s and Hungary’s worst months prices rose far faster than any yearly figure shows. The German bread prices in the picture are the figures usually quoted for Berlin.
- This page explains a term. It is not investment advice.