hyperinflation

Now, their wallets are ever thinner as a return to hyperinflation looms.

For Torrealba, hyperinflation is official once prices rise by more than 50 percent for three consecutive months.

But definitions vary, and for other experts an annual rate of 500 percent, such as predicted by the IMF, already amounts to hyperinflation.

All of that, alongside wild fiscal and monetary mismanagement, set off hyperinflation, chronic shortages and widespread misery.

Mnangagwa, who ousted long-time ruler Robert Mugabe, has presided over a collapsing economy that has suffered hyperinflation and unemployment, undermined by alleged corruption and cronyism.