Zimbabwe’s reserve bank and the country’s information ministry have been forced to deny rumours that a new national currency is being introduced. “This has no based in fact or reality,” the information ministry said in a tweet, adding, “this needs to be dismissed with the contempt it deserves”.
Bond notes were introduced to Zimbabwe in 2016. They were brought in because of a shortage of US dollars and South African rand – the main currencies in daily use after rampant inflation killed off the old Zimbabwean dollar in 2009. But inflation means that bond notes are losing their value – and many people prefer to US dollars or EcoCash, a mobile phone payment system.
