The good news - Zimbabwe’s official inflation rate is down by nearly a thousand percentage points.

The bad news - the official inflation rate in this African nation is still a whopping 6,592.8%. Independent economists peg the real inflation rate many times higher than the official rate.

Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world with prices of essential goods sometimes increasing several times a day.

In May 2006, the New York Times wrote that a single sheet of toilet paper (no, not a roll) in the country’s capital Harare cost Zimbabwean $417 while a bag of potatoes was going for $700,000 in the local currency.

Indian businesses will have to wait until 2008 for SAP’s new Business ByDesign ondemand service for midsize companies.

Launched in New York City on Wednesday, Business ByDesign - delivered as a online service - is supposed to support a range of business operations including compliance management, customer relationship management, executive management support, financials, HRM, project management, supplier relationship management and supply chain management.

Targeted at midmarket companies with 100-500 employees, Business ByDesign is priced at $149 per month per user with a minimum of 25 users.

SAP sees the addressable market for Business ByDesign at $15 billion.

Business ByDesign will compete with similar ondemand offerings from Salesforce.com, NetSuite and Oracle.

Business ByDesign is currently in early adoption with customers in the U.S. and Germany and being tested by customers in U.K., France and China.