clipped from: www.dailymail.co.uk   

Before Zimbabwe's disputed elections in March, 2 billion Zimbabwe dollars could get you a room in a five-star hotel.

Today, Gabriel Matope hopes it will buy him two litres of cooking oil - if he can find some.

More than six weeks after the poll and ahead of an expected run-off in which the opposition wants to end President Robert Mugabe's 28 years in power, Zimbabwe's economic crisis is deepening every day and pushing ordinary citizens to despair.

Hopes for change are giving way to resignation as citizens wonder whether the run-off - for which a date has still not been set -- can actually end the turmoil.
their country's economic meltdown, which has triggered inflation of 165,000 percent, 80 percent unemployment, severe food and fuel shortages, and a flood of refugees to neighbouring states.
Bread, which is not available in most shops any more, cost 15 million Zimbabwe dollars (3p) before the election, and now costs 200 million.