Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank to introduce new currency in November

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) Monetary Policy Committee has announced that a new currency will be introduced in November.

According to the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee member, Eddie Cross, the new currency would be introduced in a move to curb the current cash shortage in the country.

“I commend President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa for taking a bold decision to freeze accounts of companies suspected of fueling the instability of exchange rates,” said Cross.

He said that what is needed now is to act on such economic saboteurs.

Zimbabwe has been using the Zimbabwe dollar which became dilapidated in 2009 after the country experienced severe inflation.

The Zim dollar was replaced by foreign multi-currencies including the US dollar, the British pound, the South African rand, the Botswana pula, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan.

The US dollar remained the dominant currency but became scarce over time and pushed the central bank to introduce bond notes and bond coins in 2016 to plug the resultant cash gap.

The bond notes and coins were at par with the US dollar at their introduction but have over the years continued to lose value and are currently trading at around 14 to 1 US dollar at the interbank rate.

The government also re-introduced the Zimbabwe dollar in June, albeit in electronic form, to run at par with the bond notes and RTGS dollars, and banned the use of foreign currency as units of trade.