Explained: Why poorer nations can't just print more money and become rich

When Zimbabwe was hit by hyperinflation, in 2008, prices rose as much as 231,000,000% in a single year

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages, where The Conversation asks experts to answer questions from kids. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom of this article.

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Why don’t poorer countries just print more money? – Clementine, age 12, London, UK

Thanks for the question, Clementine. When a whole country tries to get richer by printing more money, it rarely works. Because if everyone has more money, prices go up instead. And people find they need more and more money to buy the same amount of goods.

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