Zimbabwe to introduce new currency
HARARE- Zimbabwe will do away with multiple currency regime, which includes the US, Rand and other units -that are currently accepted as legal tender alongside the RTGS$ consisting of bond notes and electronic balances, President Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa said on Friday.
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported that Zimbabwe would introduce its own currency before the end of the year. He announced this when he was addressing a rally in Southlea Park, after leading a clean-up campaign at Candy Shops, the 7th clean-up campaign since its inception on the 5th of December 2018.
President Mnangagwa stated that no country can function well without its own currency, he also added after the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar in 2009 following the adoption of the multi-currency system, the prime time is now to control in the abuse of hard currency by people abusing the open for the business drive.
“In 2009, our money collapsed and we adopted a basket of currencies but no country can function properly without its own currency. So we have started the journey of correcting that. Most of these economic and currency reforms have been necessitated by those who wish to profiteer and abuse Zimbabwe is open for Business mantra for their selfish agenda and I want to warn them that they will not succeed, ” said Cde Mnangagwa as reported by the state broadcaster ZBC.
The president, whose economic reform measures have been criticized and are now being monitored by the International Monetary Fund(IMF), defended the country’s series of austerity measures, highlighting that these would help fix the crippling economy.
Analysts at IH Securities said in an economic note on Zimbabwe on Friday that Mnangagwa’s administration was faced with ” an implementation risk of its austerity measures due to its traditional temperament for populism and tolerance towards corrupt interest group”The analysts noted that subsidies for specific goods or sectors such as fuel and medicine had to be channelled through the fiscal budget.
The IMF supports Zimbabwe’s social safety net measures aimed at ring-fencing the poor against inflation and the current austerity measures. Is Zimbabwe on the verge of recovering from its economic quagmire? Watch this space.
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