Zimbabweans formed long queues outside banks as a cash shortage prompted the government to announce plans to print a local version of the US dollar and limit withdrawals.
The government adopted US and South African currencies in 2009 after hyperinflation — which peaked at 231 million per cent — rendered the national currency unusable as the country's economy collapsed.
Key Points
A recent shortage of foreign notes led Reserve Bank Governor to unveil a raft of radical measures, including limiting withdrawals to $1,000 or 20,000 South African rand per day.
he central bank would also print its own dollar-equivalent bond notes — "which are currently at the design stage" — to ease the cash crunch.
Bond coins were introduced in Zimbabwe in 2014 to tackle the problem of small change.
The new notes in denominations of $2, $5, $10 and $20 will play a similar role, acting as tokens.
No Zim dollar to return
They will be backed by a $200-million support facility provided by Afreximbank (Africa Export-Import Bank).
This does not signal the reintroduction of the Zimbabwe currency.
Economists blame the cash shortage on a trade deficit which saw the country's import bills standing at $490 million in the first quarter against $167 million in exports.
Apart from limits on withdrawals, the amount of cash that can be taken out of the country per trip has been cut from $5,000 to $1,000.
Zimbabwe once removed 12 zeros from its battered currency at the height of hyper-inflation in 2009 when the largest note was the $100 trillion denomination.
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