Zimbabwe hikes rates to 800%

October 03, 2007

Zimbabwe's central bank has raised interest rates by 150 percentage points in a bid to tame "angry and formidable" inflation. The southern African nation is struggled with a deepening crisis marked by chronic food and fuel shortages and soaring poverty. President Robert Mugabe has made reducing inflation, the highest in the world at an annualised 6,600 percent, his number one priority.