Newsweek has a special web report on Zimbabwe’s economy and how the US dollar is traded on the black market.

From Newsweek:

Officially, one U.S dollar is worth about 30,000 Zimbabwean dollars. As of last week the real price on the black market was about 35 million dollars, or 1,166 times the official rate. The bill for a simple meal I shared with five other people at an unassuming cafe in Zimbabwe last week came to 581 million Zimbabwean dollars. The black market value: US$21. If I had paid according to the bank’s rate? US$19,366.

See our previous post on the Zimbabwe economy: “Black market cowboys in Zimbabwe”.