Inflation in Brazil

From 1964 through 1994, the accumulated inflation rate in Brazil fetched 1,000,000,000,000,000 % (that´s one quadrillion percent).
Because of the very high inflation rates in the 1980s and early 1990s, the country had to change currency several times: Brazilians were used to dealing with Cruzeiros until 1986; that year, an economic plan cut three zeros from the bills and changed the currency to Cruzado; a few years later, another three zeros were dropped, and Brazilians were introduced to the Cruzados Novos ("new cruzados"). In 1990, the Cruzados Novos were retired, and the Cruzeiros were back; in 1993, the Cruzeiros lost another three zeros and were turned into Cruzeiros Reais.In 1994, after the deployment of a new monetary plan, the new currency, called Real, came to life.
Until 1986, inflation was fought (mostly) by following the Economics books. That year, yearly inflation was running at more than 100% for the second year in a row (1985: 225%), and the government felt the necessity to adopt more extreme measures against it.In March of 1986, the Plano Cruzado was announced, anchored in practically only one idea: all prices of the Economy were frozen (including salaries, but these had an increase first). The President assigned all citizens with the job to control prices in every shop in the country; TV showed supermarkets being closed and managers being arrested, because prices had been raised. The Plan worked fine for a few months, but natural sequels soon appeared: forbidden from changing prices, the producers either refused to sell (creating a black market for several products) or just re-launched "new" products with a "new" higher price. Late in 1986, right after the elections, the government came with Plano Cruzado II, with a general increase of prices and taxes.From 1986 through 1994, a few other heterodox Plans were deployed. The outcome: accumulated inflation for 1987 was 366%. In 1989, the Summer Plan once again froze prices and proposed the privatization of State companies and the dismissal of civil servants; in December alone, the inflation was over 50%. In 1990, the wildest plan of all, the Collor Plan. The accumulated inflation from March 89 to March 90 had been almost 5,000%. In 1991, the sequel: Plan Collor II. This plan attacked the indexation: all short term financial transactions (which paid interest daily) were prohibited; the Plan Collor II failed. In 1993, Real Plan was implemented. Since 1994, inflation has been maintained at civilized levels (2003, consumer prices rose by about 8%; in 2005, the inflation target is around 6%), and the Brazilian citizens had the chance, for the first time in a long period, to get accustomed to a stable currency.
Since then the Brazilian currency has been the Real (plural: Reais), which symbol is R$.There are bills of R$1, R$2, R$5, R$10, R$20, R$50 and R$100.

Formerly, the bills were illustrated with images of Historic characters; problem was, however, that the high inflation caused the bills to loose value too fast, and what was supposed to be a homage turned into a mockery. Nowadays, the bills are illustrated with images of Brazilian animals (the feminine character on one side of all bills is a representation of the Republic).

Coins exist in values of 1 cent (R$0.01), 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and 1 Real. Coins vary in size and color. Since the release of the Real, some coins were discontinued.

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