Harare - Not yet two months after President Robert Mugabe's
government slashed 10 zeroes off the country's plunging currency,
Zimbabwe has introduced new 10,000 and 20,000 Zimbabwe dollar notes
as the new money goes the way of the old.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper said Monday that the two
new bigger notes would be brought into circulation immediately.
This is the second set of new notes introduced since August, when
the Reserve Bank, in one fell swoop, lobbed 10 zeroes off the dollar,
transforming 10 billion Zimbabwe dollars into one Zimbabwe dollar. At
that time, the biggest note was 500 dollars.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation, estimated at about 40
million per cent. The currency has plummeted to a billionth of its
value since the beginning of the year. Mugabe's bankrupt regime is
known for simply printing money when it runs out of cash.
The new 20,000 Zimbabwe dollar will only buy two packets of
cigarettes, but is also the equivalent of two months' pay for a
police constable.
One US dollar exchanged for cash on the black market is now worth
1,000 Zimbabwe dollars, but will get 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars if
exchanged by bank transfer.
The country has a chronic shortage of cash because the bank cannot
print Zimbabwe dollars fast enough to keep up with inflation and
because a German company that had supplied the country with bank note
paper for decades, stopped dealing with Zimbabwe a few months ago
under pressure from the German government.
The slide in the country's currency was checked immediately, even
strengthening for a few days, after Mugabe signed a power-sharing
agreement with pro-democracy leader Morgan Tsvangirai two weeks ago.
But it resumed its downward course when the two leaders failed to
agree on the sharing of government ministries.
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