New Currency Plus Old Equals Chaos : Money: A new Nicaraguan cordoba makes a confusing economy even worse.

After surviving a decade of civil war, Nicaraguans face inflation of 80% a month and three-tiered pricing that turns a shopping trip into an exercise for number crunchers.

Many people tuck a calculator into purse or pocket before leaving home.

“I have to think twice before going out to buy anything,” said Susana Montenegro, a middle-class housewife encountered in a supermarket. “And not just because everything is so expensive. It’s the conversions back and forth. They give me a headache.”

A new currency, called the gold cordoba, and the rules governing its value have made a confusing economy even more so.

Gold cordobas officially trade at par with the dollar and are supposed to replace the old cordobas, which Nicaraguans have christened “chancheros,” or “piggies,” to set them apart from the new ones.

When Mrs. Montenegro buys a 5-pound bag of beans she can pay in either gold cordobas or dollars and get change in piggies at the official exchange rate, or she can pay the entire amount in piggies.

Into her decision and calculations, she must factor the principle that a piggy in hand should be a piggy spent quickly, because it will buy less next week.

Devaluations of the piggy, which occur each Monday, make last week’s black market rate this week’s official exchange rate, erasing what advantage there had been in trading with the “coyotes” who deal in currency. In response, the coyotes change their own rate.

Francisco Mayorga, president of the central bank, hailed the gold cordoba as the cornerstone of the economic revival promised by the new government, but it has been a mild flop.

Only $4-million worth have been released into the market since the gold cordoba’s debut Aug. 13, about 5% of the total money in circulation, and much of that is back in the vaults.

Few people use the gold cordoba. Suspicious consumers prefer dollars, or even piggies, although 900,000 of them were needed to buy a dollar at the end of August.

The government says it will issue only as many cordobas as it has dollars to back them up.

Official parity remains in effect, but real parity began dissolving when the government stores that sell foreign goods only for dollars added a 1% charge for anyone paying with gold cordobas.

Coyotes won’t touch the new currency.

“Most people who buy dollars from me are merchants who go to Honduras and Guatemala to buy, and the gold cordobas are not accepted over there,” said one, who would not give his name. “The dollar is the dollar anywhere. The gold cordoba is something that only Panchito (Mayorga) likes.”

Public employees, who received 50 gold cordobas each as part of their pay, can use them to pay utility bills, which are higher now that subsidies have been ended.