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Countries with the highest inflation ever
What is the highest inflation ever recorded? This ranking orders 40 countries by the worst year in each World Bank series. The top belongs to Peru, with a staggering 7,482% in the single year of 1990, a number only hyperinflation can explain.
Ranking by the worst inflation year on record
| # | Country | Annual peak | Peak year | Hardest decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peru | 7,482% | 1990 | the 1990s (808%) |
| 2 | Brazil | 2,948% | 1990 | the 1990s (843%) |
| 3 | Indonesia | 1,136% | 1966 | the 1960s (213%) |
| 4 | Russian Federation | 874% | 1993 | the 1990s (222%) |
| 5 | Poland | 568% | 1990 | the 1990s (84.2%) |
| 6 | Chile | 505% | 1974 | the 1970s (190%) |
| 7 | Argentina | 220% | 2024 | the 2020s (103%) |
| 8 | Mexico | 132% | 1987 | the 1980s (69.1%) |
| 9 | Ghana | 123% | 1983 | the 1980s (48.3%) |
| 10 | Turkiye | 105% | 1994 | the 1990s (77.2%) |
| 11 | Nigeria | 72.8% | 1995 | the 1990s (30.6%) |
| 12 | Philippines | 50.3% | 1984 | the 1980s (15.6%) |
| 13 | Kenya | 46.0% | 1993 | the 1990s (17.4%) |
| 14 | Hungary | 34.8% | 1991 | the 1990s (22.2%) |
| 15 | Saudi Arabia | 34.6% | 1975 | the 1970s (12.4%) |
| 16 | Egypt, Arab Rep. | 33.9% | 2023 | the 1980s (17.4%) |
| 17 | Colombia | 33.8% | 1977 | the 1980s (23.5%) |
| 18 | Portugal | 31.0% | 1977 | the 1970s (17.7%) |
| 19 | Pakistan | 30.8% | 2023 | the 2020s (14.3%) |
| 20 | Korea, Rep. | 29.5% | 1964 | the 1970s (15.2%) |
| 21 | India | 28.6% | 1974 | the 1990s (9.5%) |
| 22 | Greece | 26.6% | 1974 | the 1980s (19.5%) |
| 23 | Spain | 24.5% | 1977 | the 1970s (14.4%) |
| 24 | Thailand | 24.3% | 1974 | the 1970s (8.0%) |
| 25 | China | 24.3% | 1994 | the 1980s (14.8%) |
When money melted
Peru leads the ranking of monetary horror: in 1990, prices rose 7,482% in a single year. Brazil follows with 2,948% in 1990, and Indonesia with 1,136% in 1966. Numbers like these are no longer "high prices": they are a currency losing its function, price tags rewritten more than once a day, and people fleeing into dollars or physical goods.
Latin America dominates the top for a historical reason: the 1980s and early 1990s were the region's era of hyperinflation, ended by stabilization plans and currency swaps such as Brazil's real in 1994. Each row leads to that country's calculator, where you can see the year by year series and convert what money was worth in any period, and the comparative archive of every country lines up every series side by side. A comparability caveat applies: series start in different years, so a country with a short series may have lived through crises the archive cannot reach.
Source: World Bank Open Data (indicator FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG, annual change in the consumer price index), CC BY-4.0 license, snapshot of 2026-07-10. Coverage: 40 countries.
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Last updated: · Methodology and sources