$100m note introduced, withdrawal limits hiked

$100m note introduced, withdrawal limits hiked

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• RBZ suspends RTGS system

• RBZ issues $10,000 and $20,000 notes

• Elton Mangoma: Monetary regulations harming the poor

• Tsvangirai surveys banking chaos

• RBZ rolls out new bank notes, coins

• RBZ slashes 10 zeros, unveils new currency

• Mumbengegwi threatens banks

• Text of RBZ statement on cash situation and stabilisation measures

• Zimbabwe introduces $10 million note

• Prosecutor wants RBZ investigated

• Cash 'baroness' escapes with a fine

• Mawere: Unpacking the Butau-Gono forex scandal

• Mugabe's spokesman says UK harbours wanted fugitives

• Chaos as RBZ extends $200 000 notes lifespan

• Fugitive Zimbabwe MP flees to Britain

• Magistrate attacks police, RBZ in botched $10bln bust probe

• 'Cash baroness' fingers Reserve Bank advisor in Z$10bln bust

• Police hunt financial crimes cover-up MP

• Zimbabwe woman held with Z$10 billion

• Banks work overtime as currency deadline nears

• Gono threatens to shut down errant banks

• Long queues as Zimbabwe runs out cash

Posted to the web: 03/12/2008 09:17:11
ZIMBABWE has issued three new denominations of banknotes, including a one-hundred-million-dollar note, as the impoverished country struggles to cope with runaway inflation, state media reported Wednesday.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said the release of the new notes followed a recent review of the limit on cash withdrawal.

The limit has been revised upwards to 50 million Zimbabwe dollars for individuals and 100 million for company account holders, The Herald said.

Before the recent increase, the withdrawal limit for individual account holders was 500,000 dollars while companies were allowed to withdraw one million dollars a day, it said.

The introduction of the new notes -- 100 million, 50 million and 10 million -- comes at a time when depositors have been spending hours in long queues at banking halls and cash dispensers to withdraw.

The new notes will come into circulation on Thursday.

RBZ governor Gideon Gono, whose five-year term has just been renewed, recently announced that the bank was working to ensure that workers had enough cash during the festive season.

The new move comes less than a month after the central bank introduced one million, 500,000 and 100,000 notes, to deal with the skyrocketing prices of basic goods.

The 100,000 banknote is worth only one US dollar on the widely-used parallel black market and is only half the amount needed to buy a loaf of bread.

Twenty-seven new currency denominations have been introduced in Zimbabwe this year alone.

Once described as a model economy and a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed over the past decade and there are now shortages of basic foodstuffs like sugar and cooking oil.

When Gono was appointed in November 2003, inflation was 619.50 percent but as of July, annual inflation hit 213 million percent. - AFP
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