Zimbabwe to launch new currency before Christmas

Zimbabwe to launch new currency before Christmas - central bank

• Zimbabwe's trillion dollar house and billion dollar bed

• Biti: 2008 budget - playing blind man's buff with the economy

• Finance minister predicts 2008 growth

• Zimbabwe can't calculate inflation

• Full text of RBZ governor's speech on launch of Sunrise 2

• New Zimbabwe currency imminent

• Zimbabwe's inflation doubles to 14850%

• RBZ shelves plans for new currency

• Timeline: Zimbabwe's economic decline

• Zimbabwe's inflation sets new record

• Zimbabwe secures US$200m credit facility

• Zimbabwe mulls new currency

• Zimbabwe's inflation slows by 1000%

• Zim levies duty in forex for underwear imports

• Zim devalues currency, raises tax free threshold

• Zimbabwe's inflation rockets to 7 634%

• RBZ unveils $200,000 dollar bill

• Gary Rusike: Should Zimbabwe adopt the rand?

ZIMBABWE'S central bank will launch its planned new currency before Christmas to help end a severe cash shortage and let consumers cope with high inflation, Governor Gideon Gono said on Thursday.

Shortages of cash in the struggling southern African nation worsened this week, obliging customers to crowd into banking halls in a desperate bid to get money as they prepare for the Christmas period.

"A practical solution is on its way. Very soon and before the festive season," Gono told the official Herald newspaper in an interview.

"There will definitely be a Sunrise 2 (new currency) coming anytime from now, mainly to deal with the cash shortages, as well as administering a decisive deterrent blow on speculators."

Zimbabwe is in the grip of a chronic economic crisis, marked by the world's highest inflation rate, surging unemployment and shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

Gono, who last month said a new currency was imminent, accused some bankers and shops of working with illegal foreign currency dealers to siphon cash out of the formal banking system.

He said out of the ZW$58 trillion in circulation as of November 15, only ZW$1 trillion was accounted for by banks, meaning that the rest was "floating somewhere out there".

Analysts say a foreign currency crunch has propelled a thriving black market where the Zimbabwe dollar trades 50 times weaker than the official bank rate of ZW$30,000 to the U.S. dollar.

The change in notes follows a similar move last year, when the central bank lopped off three zeroes from its currency and phased out old notes within three weeks in a programme dubbed "Sunrise". - Reuters

JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com