Zimbabwe to print own version of US dollar

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, Southern Africa Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Zimbabwe is set to print its own version of the US dollar in order to ease a cash shortage in the country.

Central bank governor John Mangudya said the cash, known as bond notes, will be backed by $200m (£140m) support from the Africa Export-Import Bank.

The two, five, 10 and 20 dollar notes will have the same value as their US dollar equivalents.

Zimbabwe introduced the US dollar after ditching its own currency in 2009 following sustained hyperinflation.

Since then Zimbabweans have been using the dollar as well as a number of other foreign currencies including the South African rand and the Chinese yuan.

But the governor stressed that this was not the first step on the way to reintroducing the defunct currency, the Zimbabwe Herald newspaper reports.

Mr Mangudya also introduced a number of other measures to steer people away from using US dollar cash.

He wants to encourage people to make greater use of the rand since a large portion of Zimbabwe’s trade is with South Africa.

The central bank brought in so-called bond coins of one, five, 10 and 25 cents, pegged to the US dollar, in 2014.

Mr Mangudya said the bank is still working on a design for the new notes, but they should be in circulation “within the next two months”, the Herald reports.

BBC