Harare - In a sign of the growing worthlessness of
Zimbabwe's currency, the country's central bank on Tuesday introduced
two new banknotes - a 100 million Zimbabwe dollar note and a 250
million Zimbabwe dollar note.
The launch of the new notes, which was announced on state
television Monday night, comes barely a month after the Reserve Bank
launched what has been until now the largest single note - 50 million
dollars.
But with inflation running at over 165,000 per cent, 50 million
dollars no longer buys a loaf of bread, which costs about 80 million
dollars. A bunch of five bananas also comes out at close to 100
million dollars.
The new notes, like all Zimbabwean bank notes, are bearer's
cheques with an expiry date. The smaller notes expire at the end of
June 2008.
The populist policies of President Robert Mugabe's government,
including a disastrous land reform programme, have been widely blamed
for the decimation of the currency.
On Monday the Zimbabwe dollar was trading in banks at about 200
million dollars to 1 US dollar.
Zimbabwe's economic chaos is seen as the key factor behind
Mugabe's defeat in March presidential elections. Official results
showed opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai taking 47.9 per cent of
the vote, against 43.2 for Mugabe.
Tsvangirai's failure to take the more than 50 per cent of votes
needed for an outright win means a runoff between the two is likely.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is expected to announce a date
for a runoff in the coming days. Mugabe has said he will participate
but Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, which insists he won
outright, has yet to announce whether their man will take part.
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