By Business Reporter
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, John Mangudya has moved to dispel social media claims the central bank was planning on reintroducing the dreaded Zimbabwe dollar.
In a statement, Mangudya described the rumours as “false and malicious” further insisting the claims were intended to cause panic among crisis-weary locals.
Mangudya went on to assure locals the country shall maintain its current multi-currency regime until the national economy was back on the rails.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe dismisses the false article on the reintroduction of the local currency with the contempt it deserves,” he said.
“Members of the public should ignore the social media article which has apparently been created and circulated by people who seem bent on manipulating parallel market rates for personal gain at the expense of the unsuspecting members of the public.
“The article is also calculated to cause unnecessary anxiety, panic, alarm and despondency within the national economy.
“The country will continue using the multi-currency system in line with Government Policy and the bank shall continue to procure cash in foreign currency to support the multi-currency system.”
The central bank chief urged Zimbabweans to use social media “appropriately and not for spreading false news”.
The local currency was discarded 2009 after unprecedented price hikes rendered it dysfunctional.
The country’s sole currency since independence in 1980 was once at par with the United States dollar.
But a combination of poor economic policies and often unbudgeted expenditure by then Robert Mugabes administration threw the once thriving economy into turmoil and drove basic commodities into the black market from where they were sourced using the US dollar and the South African rand.
Over time, hyperinflation reduced the Zimbabwe dollar to one of the lowest valued currency units in the world.
It was finally scrapped from circulation 2009 to be replaced by a multi-currency regime anchored by the US dollar.
Despite recurrent cash shortages that have dogged the country in the past two years, Zimbabweans are fiercely opposed to the envisaged return of their currency.
