Notwithstanding the world's highest inflation rate - by far - and the world's fastest-contracting economy, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is booming, with share prices trebling in real terms in just 22 weeks.

Earnings and growth fundamentals cannot begin to explain the 4,500 per cent surge in the ZSE Industrials index since December 2006. Instead, analysts cite three main influences - the market is drowning in liquidity as the central bank prints money at a breakneck pace; the Zimbabwe dollar has collapsed in the parallel (unofficial) market from Z$2,900 to the US dollar at the start of the year to between Z$75,000 and Z$100,000 today, and the ZSE is more casino than market as investors throw increasingly worthless Zimbabwe dollars into penny stocks.