Reserve Bank issues $1,000 note

Reserve Bank issues $1,000 note

• Inflation tops 11 million percent

• RBZ slashes 10 zeros, new currency on the way

• Mugabe attacks Britain as inflation hits 2,2m percent

• Zimbabwe's currency takes new plunge

• Zimbabwe launches new Z$500 million bank note

• RBZ unveils Z$250m bank note

• Cash shortages on first day of currency floatation

• Dollar firms after RBZ currency floatation

• RBZ eases foreign exchange rules

• Inflation soars to 165000%

ZIMBABWE'S central bank Wednesday issued a new 1,000 dollar note in a bid to ease widespread cash shortages as the country battles the world's highest inflation rate.

According to the bank, "introducing the new 1,000 Zimbabwe dollar note was for your (Zimbabweans) convenience."

The bank has introduced a series of new notes since August, after the central bank struck 10 zeros off the local currency.

There have been chronic shortages of cash amid hyperinflation which was last reported at 11.2 million percent.

Banks have imposed daily withdrawal limits of 500 dollars for individuals and corporates, which is only enough for a bus ticket from the suburbs to central Harare.

Because of the restrictions, long meandering queues have become a familiar sight outside banks, with some depositors sleeping outside to be at the front of the queue.

Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn for a decade with high unemployment and food shortages in a country where at least 80 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Two weeks ago, the reserve bank allowed selected shops and wholesalers to quote prices in foreign currency, in a bid to curb the burgeoning black market trade in basic commodities.

Once hailed as a model economy, Zimbabwe's fortunes have nosedived since 2000 when veteran ruler Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms and handed them over to landless blacks, often with no farming skills.

On Monday, Zimbabwe political parties signed a power-sharing accord aimed at ending the country's economic and political crisis. - AFP

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