poop dogg

Your guess is probably correct. I watched an almost identical situation
unfold in Mexico during the 1980s. It seemed that store clerks wouldn't
even be done re-pricing the items before the prices were raised again.
The peso continued its downward spiral from about 25 to the dollar to
the 10,000-1 rate we see today (actually 10 "new" pesos - they chopped
off 3 zeroes back around 1993). Part of it was outright mismanagement,
but I believe that the currency devaluation/astronomical inflation was
part of a deliberate effort to cover up theft by the ruling PRI party.
i.e. they stole all the wealth out of the economy, coverted it to hard
currency and deposited it in secret Swiss bank accounts, then printed
zillions of worthless banknotes to cover up the theft, leaving
average Mexicans to cover the loss in the form of lost savings and
wages (I should add that the wealthy elite somehow remained wealthy
after the devaluation/hyperinflation - no PRI officials were impoverished,
they had prior knowledge of the devaluations and moved their personal
wealth into foreign hard currency accounts). I think the same situation is
going on in Zimbabwe right now.