Highest Inflation Rates by Country (2024)

Data

Note: What Is Inflation Rate and Why Do Countries Hit Extremes?

Understanding the numbers behind the chart.

The inflation rate measures how much the average price of goods and services rises over a period, usually one year. It is the most-watched health check of an economy: when it is low and stable, wages and savings hold their value; when it spirals, everyday life becomes dramatically more expensive. The World Bank figures behind this chart track the year-on-year change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for each country in 2024.

What exactly is CPI?

• Basket of goods - The CPI tracks the price of a fixed "basket" of things a typical household buys: food, rent, transport, clothing, health care, and utilities.
• Fixed weights - Each item carries a weight reflecting how much of a household budget it takes up. Food gets more weight in poorer countries because people spend a larger share of income on it.
• Base year - Prices are compared against a reference year, so the rate is a percentage change rather than an absolute price.
• Not everything rises equally - Food and energy prices often swing far more than services, which is why "core inflation" excludes them to show the underlying trend.

Why does inflation go out of control?

• Printing money faster than the economy grows - When a government finances spending by creating money, more currency chases the same goods and prices rise. This is the classic engine of very high inflation.
• Currency collapse - When a currency loses value abroad, imports (fuel, medicine, machinery) become far more expensive, pushing domestic prices up in a vicious circle.
• Budget deficits and war or sanctions - Countries facing conflict, sanctions, or chronic fiscal crises often see prices leap as supply chains break and trust in the currency falls.
• Wage-price spiral - Workers demand higher pay to keep up with prices; firms pass higher labour costs back into prices, and the loop repeats.

What is hyperinflation?

Economists define hyperinflation as very high, accelerating inflation where prices can double in weeks or even days. Argentina's 219.9% rate in 2024 is extreme but is still a step below the historic worst cases - Zimbabwe's national currency collapsed in the late 2000s and Weimar Germany in 1923 produced episodes where prices doubled within days. Once expectations take hold that prices will keep soaring, people rush to spend or convert money into goods and foreign currency, which makes the inflation worse.

Why do the highest rates cluster in emerging and frontier economies?

• Currency weakness - Many on this list, from Nigeria to Egypt and Lebanon, depend heavily on imports priced in dollars.
• Fiscal pressure - Big budget deficits financed by printing money feed directly into prices.
• Political and economic shocks - Conflict in Palestine and Sudan, sanctions on Iran, and past economic crises in Turkey and Argentina all starve economies of stable money.
• Food dependency - When global food prices spike, countries that import much of their calories see the richest, most visible inflation in supermarkets.

What is it like to live through high inflation?

A 200% inflation rate means the same basket that cost 100 units a year ago now costs about 300 units. People's savings erode quickly, fixed salaries lose real value day by day, and firms either raise prices or fail. In practice, countries cope by holding foreign currency, buying gold and real assets, and shortening the time money is kept in cash.

Fun facts and context

• Argentina is often called the world's hyperinflation lab - it has fought chronic high inflation for decades, and its annual rates have frequently been among the world's highest.
• Turkey's is an intentional experiment - unusual interest-rate policy kept inflation high even while much of the world was bringing prices down in the mid-2020s.
• Asia and Europe are the low-inflation zones - for reference, Japan (2.7%), Germany (2.3%) and China (0.2%) were near the bottom of the global range in 2024.
• High inflation is not the same as high prices - it is about how fast prices change, not how absolute they are. The world's most expensive cities are often in otherwise stable economies.

In short, the countries at the top of this chart are not just seeing expensive things - they are seeing the value of their money erode before their eyes. Stable, low inflation (usually 2-3% a year) is a quiet foundation of a healthy economy, and when it breaks down, the effects are felt in every shop and every paycheck.