Hyperinflation

Hyperinflation is inflation which is "out of control", a condition in which prices increase rapidly as a currency loses its value. Hyperinflation often requires an annual inflation rate of 50% or more.

Although there is much debate about what triggers hyperinflation, it becomes visible when there is an unchecked increase in the money supply or drastic debasement of coinage.

Governments have occasionally resorted to literally printing money to meet their expenses.

Examples include Germany in the early 1920s when the rate of inflation hit 3.25 million percent per month; Greece in the mid-1940s with 8.55 billion percent per month; and Hungary during the same approximate time period at 4.19 quintillion percent per month.

By late 1923, the Weimar Republic of Germany was issuing fifty-million-mark banknotes and postage stamps with a face value of fifty billion marks.

Due to the rapid currency devaluation, many people chose to fuel their stoves with money because it actually cost less than buying the wood with money!