Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono is expected to introduce a long-promised new currency next month for the economically troubled Southern African nation, banking industry sources told independent news service ZimOnline.
The sources, who declined to be named for professional reasons, said Gono had already hinted in a December 12 memorandum to banks and other financial institutions that he would lay out the next phase of his monetary reforms, dubbed “Project Sunrise Two”, when he announces the monetary policy review statement in January.
The introduction of a new currency, a move meant to help shore up a Zimbabwe dollar that is shedding more value at the moment than any other currency in the world, will see the country doing away with the use of promissory notes that are known as bearer cheques and are used in the same way as cash.
“As was announced to the public recently, broader issues on monetary policy will be covered in the January 2007 monetary policy statement, which will also deal with issues pertaining to Project Sunrise Two,” read part of Gono’s memorandum to banks, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline.
It was not possible to get immediate confirmation from Gono’s office whether the memorandum was advice to banks that he would be launching the new currency in January. But the CEO of one of the country’s largest banks said industry players had understood the governor’s memo to mean new money would be introduced next month.
“We understand the governor to mean that, barring unforeseen changes, then he would be introducing new currency in January as well as laying out the other monetary reforms he has long promised,” said the banker.
Gono last August told journalists and business executives that the final leg of the currency reforms he launched in July would be implemented with little notice of less than 24 hours.
The majority of Zimbabweans no longer keep money in banks but stash it at home where it can be easily accessed to pay for goods or to finance deals on the parallel market, which has virtually supplanted the formal market.
But many lost millions of dollars during the first phase of currency reforms after failing to move cash especially from remote rural areas to banks to exchange it for new bearer cheques with less zeroes that were introduced by Gono in the first phase of the currency reforms.
Economic experts say Gono’s currency reforms will achieve little, adding the central bank chief is better served trying to convince his principals in the government to abandon their controversial policies that are the real causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. — ZimOnline