{"id":74912,"date":"2019-02-26T10:37:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T08:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=74912"},"modified":"2019-02-26T10:37:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T08:37:46","slug":"zimbabwe-launches-new-currency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/02\/26\/zimbabwe-launches-new-currency\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe launches new currency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Zimbabwe\u2019s government has a trust problem as it introduces a discounted currency in a bid to reverse chronic cash shortages that left people struggling to get hold of basic goods.<\/p>\n

Business people and economists welcomed last week\u2019s decision to abandon an unrealistic dollar peg for the country\u2019s surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars, which were merged into a new currency called the Real Time Gross Settlement dollar.<\/p>\n

But they expressed doubts about whether the government has the fiscal and monetary discipline to stick to its commitment to lower the budget deficit and keep inflation in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing to stop Zimbabwe [from] printing money with this new currency,\u201d said Jee-A van der Linde, an analyst at South Africa-based NKC African Economics. \u201cThe government has basically kicked the can down the road in recent years by trying to stimulate the economy through excessive spending.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zimbabwe\u2019s currency woes have undermined President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s efforts to win back foreign investors who were sidelined under his ousted predecessor, Robert Mugabe.<\/p>\n

The last time Zimbabwe had its own currency, a decade ago, Mugabe\u2019s government was able to turn on the printing presses to fund higher salaries for government workers, curry favour with the military and pay political opponents\u2014with disastrous economic consequences.<\/p>\n

Residents of the capital, Harare, now wait outside banks for hours to withdraw a maximum of around $30 in surrogate money or collect remittances from relatives abroad. Snaking queues have become the norm at petrol stations because of a shortage of fuel.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube last week pledged to contain public spending and reiterated the importance of the independence of the central bank. Yet, investors and Zimbabweans remain concerned that, should Mnangagwa\u2019s government come under political or military pressure, it may revert to the tricks of the past.<\/p>\n

Some also fear that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country\u2019s central bank, will be unwilling to loosen its grip over the currency as its governor, John Mangudya, is thought to oppose the move to abandon the dollar peg.\u2014 Reuters <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zimbabwe\u2019s government has a trust problem as it introduces a discounted currency in a bid to reverse chronic cash shortages that left people struggling to get hold of basic goods. Business people and economists welcomed last week\u2019s decision to abandon an unrealistic dollar peg for the country\u2019s surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars, which were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74917,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74912\/revisions\/74917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}