Inflation Accounting

Inflation accounting describes an accounting model to be used during very high and hyperinflation. CIPPA is to be implemented at all levels of inflation and deflation.

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Quick Fix for Zimbabwe

Official Stabilization Plan


· Unify official and parallel exchange rates.

· Demonstrate commitment to greater fiscal responsibility.

· Scrap price controls

· Index unit to link non-monetary prices with official daily updates.

· Low new money supply growth.


Quik Fix


· Index unit (USD) to update non-monetary prices daily at the Old Mutual Implied Rate .



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Ink and a roll of paper is not real value.

The generally accepted notion in Zimbabwe that it is acceptable that a person can use ink and a roll of paper to collect US Dollars should stop as soon as possible for the best of the Zim people.

Not one ZimDollar of real value is created because it is economically and physically impossible to create real value like that.

No real value is created at all because it is not possible to create real value like that.It is simply a method to use power to use imperfections in the Zim market, not to create value, because that is impossible, but, to collect US Dollars in the parallel market.

That is not due process or acceptable in any economy. It is destroying whatever little bit of real value still exists in the Zim economy; that total of real transaction demand that is somehow represented by the total of ZimDollar notes in circulation.

That real transaction demand is finite now in Zimbabwe. Hardly any new real value is being created.The real transaction demand in real terms is finite.

Adding billions more pieces of paper to that total to collect USDollars in the parallel market, creates no new real Zim value, but, because the actual real Zim value is a finite, definite value, that finite real value has now to be divided amongst so many more billions pieces of paper.

Summary:

It creates not one ZimDollar in real value, but, it destroys millions of US Dollars in real value in the real value of existing ZimDollars in the country.

This process can - if carried on often enough - get to a point where all the real value of the ZimDollar is destroyed.

I cannot explain that final process or why it is like that. I do not yet understand that final step when all ZimDollars become worthless, but, I know from the Yugoslavia case, that it is possible.

I think Zim should stop with this process.

Maybe it would be better to follow the Brazilians and stabilise the Zim economy by stabilizing non-monetary values with a Zim Unidade Real de Valor or real value index unit.

Equilibrium for Zimbabwe.

Equilibrium for Zimbabwe will come about when Zimbabwe copies Brazil and implements a Zim non-monetary index unit or Zim Real Value Unit based on the proven and very successful Brazilian Unidade Real de Valor that allowed Brazil to have a stable and growing economy in non-monetary items which gave them time to sort out how to kill cash hyperinflation in their money.

This is not a theory. It is an historic fact. It was a proven and very successful practice implemented in the 180 million people Brazilian economy.

What is required in Zimbabwe are two elements: a stable non-monetary index unit and a daily rate between the ZimDollar and this stable Real Value Unit.

The Zim Real Value Unit already exists. It is the USDollar.

The USD is a monetary item and the Zim Real Value Unit has to be a non-monetary index. That is correct. It is also true that the USD is 2% away from being a 100% stable index unit. 2% is nothing in the current hyperinflationary chaos in Zimbabwe.

The USD is the Zim Real Value Unit. Every non-monetary item in Zim is given a USD price. That is done by dividing the current ZimDollar purchase price or valuation of any Zim non-monetary item by the current Real Value Unit rate. Or it is simply given a USD price.

Now a a single daily Zim Real Value Unit rate is needed.

That also exists. It is called the Old Mutual Implied Rate. There are many parallel rates in Zimbabwe every day. Everybody haggles to get his or her best rate for his or her deal. So there are many, many USD parallel rates. There is no single USD rate for the whole country because the ZimDollar is not yet floated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The Old Mutual Implied Rate is calculated by dividing the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange price of the Old Mutual share by the London Stock Exchange Price for the same share. The answer is the Old Mutual Implied Rate for the Pound. Then a cross rate calculation is done for the USD rate.

That is the Old Mutual Implied Rate for the USD in Zimbabwe. A single rate is calculated by using the daily closing prices.That can be used as the single Real Value Unit Rate for the whole of Zimbabwe. There is no doubt about the daily closing rate when closing prices are used.

That is the equilibrium solution for Zimbabwe.

How will the OMIR be used for salaries. The worker and employer determine the salary in USD. Say USD 100 or USD 1000 or whatever the USD salary is. It will not change for a whole year in USD value.

Every time the salary is paid it is paid at that day´s OMIR. As prices go up the OMIR will go up and so will the salary. A worker will always receive the same salary in USD equivalent value.This way salaries and prices are linked.

This way all non-monetary items in the whole Zim economy are linked, just like with the Brazilian Unidade Real de Valor.

The Zim economy will return to being a stable economy in non-monetary items. Cash inflation will still depend on the strenght or weakness of the many underlying value systems in the Zim economy, namely the monetary system, economic system, banking system, government, justice system, education system, defence system, industrial policies and systems, etc, etc.

The Zim Real Value Unit will kill non-monetary inflation in all non-monetary items since they will all be valued at exactly the same Zim Real Value Unit rate.

The Zim economy will stabilise and the government and monetary authorities can work on the problems to kill cash hyperinflation in the ZimDollar.

Financial Statements, Inflation and The Audit Report: Peer reviewed article published in Accountancy SA Sept 2007.

http://www.accountancysa.org.za/resources/ShowItemArticle.asp?ArticleId=1235&issue=857

“In most countries, primary financial statements are prepared on the historical cost basis of accounting without regard either to changes in the general level of prices or to increases in specific prices of assets held, except to the extent that property, plant and equipment and investments may be revalued.” ¹

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) only recognizes two economic items:

1.) Monetary items defined as “money held and items to be received or paid in money;” and

2.) Non-monetary items: All items that are not monetary items.

Non-monetary items include variable real value non-monetary items valued, for example, at fair value, market value, present value, net realizable value or recoverable value.

They also include Historical Cost items based on the stable measuring unit assumption.

One of the basic principles in accounting is “The Measuring Unit principle: The unit of measure in accounting shall be the base money unit of the most relevant currency.

This principle also assumes the unit of measure is stable; that is, changes in its general purchasing power are not considered sufficiently important to require adjustments to the basic financial statements.” ²

This makes these Historical Cost items equal to monetary items in the case of companies´ Retained Income balances and the issued share capital values of companies with no well located and well maintained land and/or buildings or other variable real value non-monetary items able to be revalued at least equal to the original real value of each contribution of issued share capital.

Retained Income is a constant real value non-monetary item valued at Historical Cost which makes it subject to the destruction of its real value by cash inflation – exactly the same as in cash.

It is an undeniable fact that South Africa’s functional currency’s internal real value is constantly being destroyed by cash inflation in the case of our low inflationary economy, but this is not considered important enough to adjust the real values of constant real value non-monetary items in the financial statements - the universal stable measuring unit assumption.

The combination of the Historical Cost Accounting model and low inflation is thus indirectly responsible for the destruction of the real value of Retained Income equal to the annual average value of Retained Income times the average annual rate of inflation. This value is easy to calculate in the case of each and very company in South Africa with Retained Income. It is also possible to calculate this value for all companies in the world economy with Retained Income.

It is broadly known that the destruction of the internal real value of the monetary unit of account is a very important matter and that inflation thus destroys the real value of all variable real value non-monetary items when they are not valued at fair value, market value, present value, net
realizable value or recoverable value.

But, everybody suddenly agrees, in the same breath, that for the purpose of valuing Retained Income - a constant real value non-monetary item - the change in the real value of money is not regarded as important to update the value of Retained Income in the financial statements. Everybody suddenly then agrees to destroy hundreds of billions of Dollars in real value in all companies´ Retained Income balances all around the world.

Yes, inflation is very important!

All central banks and thousands of economists and commentators spend huge amounts of time on the matter. Thousands of books are available on the matter. Financial newspapers and economics journals dedicate thousands of columns to the fight against inflation.

But, when it comes to constant real value non-monetary items, it doesn’t seem as if inflation is important. We happily destroy hundreds of billions of Dollars in Retained Income real value year in year out.

However, when you are operating in an economy with hyperinflation (perhaps only Zimbabwe at the moment with 3 713% inflation), then we all agree that you have to update everything in terms of International Accounting Standard IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies. You have to update variable AND constant real value non-monetary items.

But, ONLY as long as your annual inflation rate has been 26% for three years in a row adding up to 100% - the rate required for the implementation of IAS 29.

Once you are not in hyperinflation anymore, for example, 15% annual inflation for as many years as you want, then you are not allowed to update constant real value non-monetary items any more. Then you must destroy their real value again – at 15% per annum. Or 7.0% per annum in the case of South Africa (April 2007).

For example:

Shareholder value permanently destroyed by the implementation of the Historical Cost Accounting model in Exxon Mobil's Retained Income during 2005 exceeded $4.7bn for the first time. This compares to the $4.5bn shareholder real value permanently destroyed in 2004 in this manner. (Dec 2005 values).

The application by BP, the global energy and petrochemical company, of the stable measuring unit assumption in the accounting of their Retained Income resulted in the destruction of at least $1.3bn of shareholder value during 2005. (Dec 2005 values).


Royal Dutch Shell Plc, a global group of energy and petrochemical companies, permanently destroyed $2.974 billion of shareholder value during 2005 as a result of the application of the stable measuring unit assumption in the accounting of their Retained Income. (Dec 2005 values).


Should this value be reflected in the financial statements?

Maybe it should.


Nicolaas Smith



Footnotes

¹ International Accounting Standards Committee, (1995), International Accounting Standard 1995, London, IASC, Page 502
² Paul H. Walgenbach, Norman E. Dittrich and Ernest I. Hanson, (1973), Financial Accounting, New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc. Page 429.

Real Value Unit to stabilise the economy on the way.

Most people realize that the situation in Zimbabwe is beyond politics at the moment. This cannot be left to go any further.

Brazil very successfully employed the Unidade Real de Valor. It is not a theory. It is a fact. It is not mine. I did not come up with it. It is a proven and very successful accounting practice used by Brazil and explained in Zimbabwe by the Brazilians to Zimababweans a few months ago.

Two items are required: a non-monetary index unit and a daily rate between that stable non-monetary index unit and the ZimDollar.

Zim already has the "stable" non-monetary index unit. It is the USD price of every non-monetary item in Zim.

I know the USD is a monetary item. I know.

The USD is 2% away from being a 100% stable non-monetary unit. I think that is acceptable in Zim´s current hyperinflationary chaos.

The fact that the USD is an immediately fully understandable and fully credible subsitute for a full non-monetary index makes it very acceptable in Zim.

So, the only item that needs to be generally agreed is the daily rate to be applied by everyone. I would suggest that it should be the Old Mutual Implied Rate for the USD in Zimbabwe. It is freely available to everyone every working day of the week. It is unambiguous and definite. The current rate can be used during the day with the closing price as the rate for the day. There is only one closing price. No ambiguity. One single price. Available to everyone everywhere with internet access.

Peer Review by Head of Turkish International Accounting Standards Department of Real Value Accounting. r

Dear Mr. Smith,
As we have talked on the phone, you can find my interpretation about your book, attached to this e-mail.
Please do not hesitate to contact for any point.
Best regards,
Cemal KÜÇÜKSÖZEN, Ph.D.
Head of Accounting Standards Department
Capital Markets Board of Turkey

Dear Nick Smith,

I examined your book and understood that Real Value Accounting™ is based on the continuous updating of non-monetary units in terms of the Consumer Price Index to today’s real value.

Theoretically, I totally agree with you. But, as you know, there is a trend toward the acceptance of International Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board all over the world. For example, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) recommends harmonization of national accounting standards with IAS and IFRS. Also, the European Union introduced the requirement that from 2005 onwards, all listed companies have to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with IAS and IFRS adopted for application within the European Community. Considering international developments and as a candidate country for full membership, Turkey has issued a communiqué involving all IAS and IFRS and began application of them from the beginning of 2005 (As you know, we began application of IAS 29 in 2003).

In this regard, we can change over to real value accounting when there is a change in IAS/IFRS toward real value accounting or there is a trend toward real value accounting all over the world.

Regarding to tax regulation, I want to emphasize that tax regulation required restatement of assets and liabilities according to inflation (in terms of IAS 29) for the date of 31.12.2003 but taxes were not taken according to restated values in 2003. In 2004, financial statements were restated and taxes were taken based on restated values. In 2005, tax authority declared that high inflation period has ended, so entities did not do restatement according to inflation in first, second and third quarter of 2005. At the end of 2005, both Board and tax authority will evaluate economic conditions again and decide whether there is a need to restatement according to inflation.

Lastly, you stated in your book “publicly held companies and capital market institutions must account for perhaps an estimated 80 percent of the Turkish economy”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give such statistical information. Besides, I attached a file that includes information about market value of publicly held companies. As you can see in that file, total market value of publicly held companies is approximately $ 174.3 billion and market value of floating part is about $ 54 billion. Total portfolio value of the investment funds is about $ 20 billion where brokerage firms have an estimated market value of $ 2 billion.

On the other hand, I can say that when there is hyperinflation in terms of IAS 29, with some exceptions (small firms), most of the Turkish companies have to restate their assets and liabilities according to regulation of the CMB and the tax authorities.

Best regards.

Reviewed 12-04-16

What Mugabe is looking for r

I am sure Mugabe will like the idea of linking salaries and prices with a Brazilian style Unidade Real de Valor non-monetary real value unit. He can see that salaries and prices have to be linked somehow. He is trying to link them by force.

He is getting the idea. He just does not know how to link them because his economic advisors forget about the fact that Brazil managed to do it. Mugabe wants to do it the way he knows. By force and by police action. He is actually trying to do something.

I think the only reason he does what he is doing is because he does not know about any other way. His advisors also seem to be too scared to stand up to him with the right solutions. He can feel that everybody just wants him to go. I think his advisors also do not have an aswer.

The Unidade de Valor Real is the solution. Someone just has to have the guts to stand toe to toe with Mugabe and tell him this to his face. It is the solution Mugabe is looking for. He must just understand it and then he can implement it. It will work.

Copyright 2007 Nicolaas Johannes Smith

Reviewed 12-04-16

Unidade Real de Valor r

Zimbabwe can normalise everything following another country that had hyperinflation for 10 years and never had your problems.

That country is Brazil.

The Zim government should find out how Brazil stabilised its economy with a real value unit. They called it the Unidade Real de Valor. That is the only way to save Zimbabwe now. But someone has to explain the workings of the non-monetary real value unit to the Zim government.

The Zim governemt´s ideas are not working. Brazil knew what to do. Follow their proven success plan.

Here is a link to the Unidade Real de Valor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_Real_de_Valor

It was "a non-monetary reference currency"

Reviewed 12-04-16

Terms

The following Trademarks are owned by Nicolaas Johannes Smith

Constant Unit of Purchasing Power ™   14-07-2019

CUPP ™ 14-07-2019

ÇUPP ™ 14-07-2019

Constant ™  14-07-2019

€ CUPP ™  14-07-2019

$ CUPP ™ 14-07-2019

£ CUPP™ 14-07-2019

YEN CUPP™ 14-07-2019

YUAN  CUPP ™  14-07-2019

ROUBLE  CUPP ™  14-07-2019

SWISS FRANC  CUPP ™  14-07-2019

RAND CUPP™ 14-07-2019

Capital Maintenance in Units of Constant Purchasing Power™

CMUCPP™

Constant Item Purchasing Power Accounting™

CIPPA™

constant real value non-monetary item™

constant item™

Variable real value non-monetary item™

Variable item™

Accounting dollar-indexation™



Inflation illusion™


The singular implies the use of the plural and small letters imply the use of capital letters: for both cases in all variations and combinations.

Reviewed 12-04-16