Zimbabwean dollar back in use this year

Published: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30:00

Zimbabwe's dollar, abandoned in March because of its worthlessness, will be back in circulation by year-end, Robert Mugabe has said. Harare abandoned its dollar six months again to curb galloping inflation which forced thrice-daily price increases, rendering the local currency unusable. But Mugabe said multiple foreign currencies that replaced the local dollar were unavailable to Zimbabweans, thereby spiking deep poverty.

"The use of multiple currencies is not helping our people much as the money is difficult to secure," Mugabe said. The 85-year-old Zimbabwean leader, in power since 1980, was addressing villagers in Zhombe, the Midlands province. He added: "We will be reintroducing our own currency by end of the year. People are failing to board buses. Some are using goats to pay as bus fares.

"This needs to be redressed. I do not hope to face similar problems next year. We would have failed as leaders if that is allowed to happen."

Finance minister Tendai Biti, from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has threatened to quit if forced to bring back the local dollar. At the height of the country's economic crisis last year, mirrored by galloping inflation, prices for basic foodstuffs like bread were fetching billions and trillions of Zimbabwe dollars. The MDC remains in a shaky coalition with Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. Recent terror charges for a former aide led to prime minister and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai briefly suspending cooperation between the two parties.

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