 |
|
The Zimbabwean government
effectively abandoned the local currency in 2009 and adopted a multiple
currency system that includes the US dollar and the South African rand ©Desmond
Kwande (AFP)
|
The Zimbabwean dollar will officially be taken out of
circulation, officials said Thursday, six years after hyper-inflation rendered
it worthless and US dollars became the most widely-used currency.
The government
effectively abandoned the local currency in 2009 and adopted a multiple
currency system that includes the US dollar and the South African rand.
AFP report continues:
"Zimbabwe adopted
the multiple currency system or dollarization in 2009 and it is therefore
necessary to demonetize the Zimbabwe dollar unit," Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya said at a news conference.
"We are
decommissioning this currency."
The southern African
country once removed 12 zeros from its battered currency at the height of
hyper-inflation in 2009 when the largest note was the US$100 trillion
denomination. Official figures put inflation at 230 million percent but put it
much higher.
Mangudya said US$20 million
has been set aside to offset Zimbabwe dollar bank balances and to pay people
still holding to the local unit.
The process will run
until September, he said.
"People went through
a difficult process in terms of inflation. Yes, we know that there was
hyper-inflation. We need to ensure that as a country we move forward,"
Mangudya said.
Zimbabwe has been saddled
with a financial crisis for over a decade following President Robert Mugabe's
land reforms which decimated farming, the backbone of the economy.
Growth is expected to
weaken further this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
No comments:
Post a Comment