Countries with the highest inflation rate in 2024

The 20 countries with the highest inflation in 2024

Venezuela had the highest inflation rate in the world in 2024, with consumer prices projected to rise about 230 percent, far ahead of Zimbabwe at about 190 percent and Sudan at about 127 percent, the only other economies with triple digit inflation.

Inflation, the rate at which prices rise, hits hardest in a small group of economies where it runs many times the global average, and this ranking shows exactly where the pressure was worst. Our global inflation rate compared to the previous year coverage sets the same figures in a wider time frame.

The ranking is based on IMF World Economic Outlook projections for the annual change in consumer prices in 2024. It captures the 20 economies where inflation was expected to be highest, from Venezuela at the top to Uzbekistan near 11 percent at the foot of the list.

Few economic measures reveal the health of a country as clearly as its inflation rate. The countries at the top of this list share weak currencies, large deficits and, in several cases, years of money printing that fed runaway prices.

This overview ranks all 20 economies, then explains the drivers, the regional pattern and how they compare with the rest of the world, as our inflation worldwide hub tracks in full across every year.

The gap between these economies and the rest of the world is vast. While most large economies kept inflation near or below 5 percent in 2024, the countries here faced double or triple digit rises that erode savings and wages within months.

The picture also connects to the wider slowdown in prices after the global peak of 2022, a decline our global inflation and global economy coverage follows across every major region.

The top 20 ranked: Venezuela led with inflation near 230 percent in 2024, ahead of Zimbabwe and Sudan, with the rest of the list running from roughly 70 percent down to about 11 percent.

The chart makes the concentration clear. A handful of economies at the top faced runaway prices, while most of the top 20 sat between 10 and 30 percent, still far above the levels seen across advanced and most emerging markets.

It is worth stressing what these figures mean in daily life. An inflation rate of 230 percent means the price of a typical basket of goods more than triples in a single year, so money set aside in January buys far less by December. Wages rarely keep pace, so real incomes fall sharply.

The ranking also shifts from year to year. Countries can climb or fall quickly as currencies move, conflicts erupt or policy changes, which is why a snapshot of 2024 differs from earlier years even for the same economies at the top of the list.

Highest Inflation Rate by Country in 2024

The table lists all 20 economies with the highest inflation in 2024, their projected rate and their region. It shows how sharply the list falls away from Venezuela at the top, and how many of the entries sit in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ten of the 20 economies were in Sub-Saharan Africa, four in Latin America, three in the Middle East and three in emerging Asia, a spread that our GDP per capita coverage frames through wide differences in income.

Sorting the table by rate rather than rank makes the drop from the top even clearer. The distance between first and fourth place is larger than the distance across the entire rest of the list, a sign of just how extreme the leading economies were in 2024.

Which Country Has the Highest Inflation in 2024?

Venezuela had the highest inflation rate in 2024, with prices projected to climb about 230 percent. Zimbabwe followed at about 190 percent and Sudan at about 127 percent, the three economies where inflation crossed 100 percent in a single year.

These leaders stand apart from the rest of the ranking. Their rates were several times higher than Argentina in fourth place, and dozens of times higher than the countries at the foot of the top 20, a divide that reflects deep economic crisis rather than passing pressure.

Venezuela has ranked among the highest inflation economies for a decade. Prices there once rose by millions of percent in 2018, so a rate near 230 percent, while still the worst in the world, marks a sharp fall from the depths of that crisis.

Zimbabwe has a long history of monetary instability, including an episode of hyperinflation in the late 2000s that forced it to abandon its own currency for a time, and its 2024 rate shows how hard that instability is to shake off.

Sudan, meanwhile, has been gripped by conflict that has shattered production and public finances, feeding an inflation rate above 100 percent as the state prints money to cover its costs.

The leaders: Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Sudan faced triple digit inflation in 2024, far ahead of Argentina, Turkey and Egypt in the tier below.

Below the top three, Argentina and Turkey stand out as large economies with entrenched inflation, both running well above 50 percent before aggressive policy shifts began to bring the numbers down later in the year.

Energy costs play a large part in many of these economies, since fuel feeds into the price of almost everything else. Where a country imports most of its fuel and the currency is weak, a rise in world energy prices lands with extra force, as our gas prices coverage tracks.

Food is the other great pressure point. In lower income economies, households spend a much larger share of their budget on food, so double digit food inflation hits living standards far harder than the same headline rate would in a wealthy country.

How Wide Is the Gap Between the Highest and Lowest?

The gap between the highest and lowest inflation countries in 2024 was enormous. Venezuela near 230 percent sat at one extreme, while economies such as China and Switzerland held inflation near 2 percent, and Senegal was close to zero.

Seen on a normal scale, the top economies dwarf everyone else, so a logarithmic view helps show the full range from hyperinflation to near price stability. It reveals a spread of more than a hundredfold across the world in a single year.

The contrast is a reminder that a global average hides vastly different experiences. A household in Venezuela or Zimbabwe faced price rises that would be unthinkable in Switzerland or China, where prices barely moved at all.

At the calm end of the range sit advanced economies and a few emerging markets with strong currencies and credible central banks. Their inflation stayed close to the targets that most policymakers aim for, as our largest economies coverage sets out.

A hundredfold spread: on a logarithmic scale, Venezuela near 230 percent towers over economies such as China and Switzerland near 2 percent and Senegal close to zero.

The logarithmic view underlines why comparing these economies on a single linear axis is so hard. The distance from Senegal to Venezuela in 2024 spanned several orders of magnitude, a range rarely seen in any other economic measure.

This is also why economists often treat the worst hit economies separately. Including them in a simple world average would distort the picture, so aggregates are usually shown as medians or grouped by income, keeping the extremes in view without letting them dominate every figure.

How Does the Top 20 Break Down by Band?

The top 20 splits into clear bands. Three economies faced triple digit inflation, two more ran between 50 and 99 percent, six sat between 20 and 49 percent, and the remaining nine fell between 10 and 19 percent.

Grouping the ranking this way shows that true hyperinflation was rare, confined to Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Sudan, while most of the list faced severe but less extreme double digit inflation that still bites hard into household budgets.

The largest band, from 10 to 19 percent, held nine economies including Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia. These are large populations facing sustained price rises that outpace wages and push millions toward hardship.

The 20 to 49 percent band captured Egypt, Angola, Iran and others where inflation was severe but not yet catastrophic, often driven by currency weakness and rising import costs for food and fuel.

How the 20 split: only three economies faced triple digit inflation, while nine sat in the 10 to 19 percent band, the largest single group in the ranking.

The banding also hints at how each group might recover. The triple digit economies need deep structural change, while several in the lower bands could return toward single digits within a year or two if their currencies stabilise and food and fuel prices ease.

The breakdown helps put hyperinflation in perspective. It is the rare exception even among the worst hit economies, while the more common story is entrenched double digit inflation that grinds down living standards year after year.

How Far Above the 2 Percent Target Are These Economies?

Every economy in the top 20 ran far above the 2 percent target that most central banks aim for. Even in the double digit tier, from Egypt near 26 percent down to Pakistan near 18 percent, inflation was many times the goal that anchors advanced economies.

The distance from target matters because it shapes how painful the fight against inflation becomes. The further a rate sits above 2 percent, the higher interest rates usually need to climb, and the deeper the squeeze on growth and jobs.

For the economies shown here, the gap to target ranged from about 15 to 24 percentage points, a chasm that cannot be closed quickly without either very tight policy or a sharp fall in the price of imported food and energy.

The path back toward target is rarely smooth. It usually requires a stable currency, credible policy and, often, painful cuts to public spending, a mix that many of these economies find hard to sustain, as our interest rates coverage explains.

The gap to target: even the double digit tier of the ranking, from Egypt to Pakistan, ran far above the 2 percent goal that anchors most advanced economies.

The chart shows how wide the gap remains once inflation becomes entrenched. Closing it takes years rather than months, and the effort weighs heavily on borrowers, businesses and government budgets alike.

The scale of the challenge stands out when set against advanced economies. There, a move of even one percentage point above target prompts a strong response, while the economies here needed inflation to fall by 15 points or more just to reach the level that would alarm a wealthy country before any policy rate could be eased.

How Does Inflation Compare Across the World?

The top 20 economies faced inflation far above the rest of the world in 2024. Advanced economies averaged near 2.6 percent and the global figure was about 5.8 percent, while the average across the top 20 was close to 47 percent.

The contrast shows how concentrated extreme inflation had become. A small group of economies pulled the tail of the global distribution far to the right, even as most of the world moved back toward more normal price rises.

Emerging and developing economies as a group averaged about 8 percent in 2024, higher than advanced economies but still a fraction of the rates seen in the worst hit countries, where prices doubled or more within a year.

This wide gap between the average and the extremes is why headline global inflation can look calm while millions of people still face severe price rises, a divide our world growth coverage frames alongside output.

Average vs extremes: the average across the top 20 was near 47 percent, against about 8 percent for emerging economies, 5.8 percent globally and 2.6 percent in advanced economies.

It is also a reminder that averages can mislead. A person reading that global inflation was under 6 percent might assume the crisis was over, yet for hundreds of millions of people in the top 20 economies, the reality in 2024 was still one of rapidly rising prices.

The combined view sets the ranking against the wider world. It shows that the countries on this list were true outliers, not part of a broad wave of high inflation, even though many people across the world still felt the pinch of rising prices.

Why Is Inflation So High in These Countries?

Inflation runs so high in these countries because of weak currencies, large fiscal deficits, rapid money supply growth and heavy reliance on imported food and energy. These forces often combine, so that a fall in the currency feeds straight into higher prices.

In the worst cases, governments cover their spending by printing money, which floods the economy with currency and pushes prices up fast. This is the classic engine of hyperinflation seen in Venezuela and Zimbabwe over the past decade.

Currency weakness is often the trigger. When a currency loses value against the dollar, the cost of imported fuel, food and machinery jumps, and businesses pass those higher costs on to households almost immediately.

Conflict and political instability make everything worse. War in Sudan and Yemen has wrecked production and public finances, while sanctions and isolation add to the pressure in economies such as Iran.

Loose monetary policy and weak central banks complete the picture. Where policymakers lack the independence or the tools to raise rates in time, inflation expectations become unanchored and price rises feed on themselves, as our central banks coverage sets out.

A shared profile: hyperinflation economies score high across currency weakness, deficits and money growth, while emerging markets on average show far milder pressure. Values are an illustrative index.

Expectations are a driver in their own right. Once people expect prices to keep rising, they demand higher wages and raise their own prices in advance, which turns fear of inflation into more inflation. Breaking that cycle is one of the hardest tasks a central bank can face.

The profile shows why some economies get stuck at the top of the ranking. When several drivers pull in the same direction at once, inflation becomes self reinforcing and far harder to bring back under control.

How Do Inflation and Growth Compare in These Economies?

High inflation does not always mean weak growth, but it often signals economic strain. Among the high inflation economies of 2024, Argentina was in recession while Ethiopia grew strongly, showing that fast rising prices can sit alongside very different growth stories.

The relationship is complex. Some economies with double digit inflation still expanded, helped by rising commodity exports or population growth, while others saw output shrink as households and firms cut back in the face of soaring prices.

Argentina is the clearest example of strain, with inflation near 70 percent and output falling as a sweeping stabilisation program squeezed demand. The pain was seen as the price of bringing inflation down over time.

Elsewhere, economies such as Ethiopia and Iran combined high inflation with positive growth, though the quality of that growth is often uneven and does little to protect the poorest from rising prices, as our cost of living coverage frames.

Prices against output: Argentina paired very high inflation with recession, while Ethiopia combined high inflation with strong growth, on approximate 2024 projections.

The scatter shows there is no single rule linking inflation and growth. What the high inflation economies share is not a common growth path but a common loss of price stability, which makes planning and investment far harder.

Where Do the Major Economies Sit?

The major economies sat far below the top 20 in 2024. India was highest among them near 4.4 percent, followed by Brazil near 3.9 percent, while the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom held between 2 and 3 percent.

This is the contrast that defines the global picture. The economies that dominate world output and trade kept inflation close to target, even as a separate group of smaller and more fragile economies faced runaway prices.

China stood out for very low inflation near 2 percent, close to deflation, as weak domestic demand and property market trouble kept prices flat, a very different problem from the one facing the top of the ranking.

The United States held near 2.6 percent, still a touch above target, while much of Europe returned close to 2 percent after the energy crisis eased, as our inflation in Europe and inflation in the UK coverage sets out.

Near or below target: the major economies ran from about 4.4 percent in India down to 1.9 percent in China and France, far below the top 20 highest inflation countries.

Within Europe, the picture was fairly even by 2024. France sat near 1.9 percent while Spain held close to 3 percent, both a world away from the top of the ranking, as our inflation in France and inflation in Spain coverage sets out in detail.

The chart underlines the divide at the heart of this story. The world largest economies had largely tamed inflation by 2024, while the countries at the top of the ranking remained locked in crisis, as our US tariffs coverage notes for the price pressures that lingered.

Highest Inflation in 2024 in Numbers

A few figures capture the ranking. Venezuela led with inflation near 230 percent, three economies crossed 100 percent, and the average across the top 20 was close to 47 percent, against a global figure near 5.8 percent.

These numbers matter because inflation is not an abstract figure but the force that decides how far wages stretch and how much savings are worth, hitting hardest in the very economies least able to cope, as our richest countries coverage sets alongside incomes.

The five worst hit: Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Argentina and Turkey made up the top five highest inflation economies in the world in 2024.

Together they describe a world where extreme inflation had become rare but intense, concentrated in a handful of economies while the global average kept falling back toward more normal levels.

Highest Inflation Countries: The Big Picture

Taken together, the highest inflation countries of 2024 tell a story of crisis at the edges of the world economy, even as the global average eased toward the mid 5 percent range after the peak of 2022.

The wider path of global inflation, up sharply in 2022 and then down through 2024 and beyond, is the backdrop against which these outliers stand out, as our year on year coverage shows in detail. That link opens the same series across a longer horizon.

For the economies at the top of this list, the global trend offered little relief. Their inflation was driven by domestic weakness rather than the global forces that lifted and then lowered prices elsewhere, which is why they remained stuck near the top.

Looking ahead, the IMF expects global inflation to keep easing toward the middle of the decade, though risks remain from energy shocks, trade tensions and fresh conflict. A renewed jump in commodity prices could slow the decline or even reverse it for a time.

For the worst hit economies, the outlook is more uncertain still. Some, such as Argentina, may fall sharply down the ranking if reforms hold, while others could stay near the top for years unless the deeper problems behind their inflation are addressed.

The wider backdrop: global inflation peaked in 2022 and eased through 2024, but the countries at the top of the ranking stayed far above this path throughout.

History offers some hope. Countries that once seemed trapped at the top, from parts of Latin America to Eastern Europe, have brought inflation down to single digits within a decade when reforms held and central banks won back their credibility.

The lesson from 2024 is that high inflation is neither random nor permanent. It follows clear causes, and it responds to clear remedies, even if the road back to stable prices is long, painful and easy to abandon halfway.

Whether these economies escape the top of the ranking will depend on domestic reform, stable currencies and credible policy, rather than on the global trend alone, and for now they remain the clearest examples of what happens when price stability is lost.

Frequently Asked Questions: Highest Inflation Countries