Zimbabwe’s central bank on Tuesday introduced yet another higher denomination banknote as it grappled with runaway inflation that is rendering lower-value banknotes useless.
The new Z$200 000 bearer cheque is the latest addition to a series of temporary bank notes introduced as a stop-gap measure at the height of a critical shortage of bank notes.
It is worth US$800 at the official rate and US$1 at the parallel market rate.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said in an advertisement in the government-run Herald newspaper on Tuesday it was ”introducing the new Z$200 000 bearer cheque with effect from August 1 2007 for your convenience.”
Zimbabwe is in the throes of chronic economic crises with inflation well past the 5 000 percent mark, four in every five people jobless and no less than 80% of the population living below the poverty threshold.
In July last year the central bank slashed three zeros from the country’s currency and introduced new bank notes for the convenience of shoppers who had resorted to carrying rucksacks full of banknotes to buy ordinary groceries.
The current series of bearer cheques was due to expire on Tuesday but the central bank extended their life-span on Friday to July 31 next year.
The local dollar, which was almost at parity with the pound sterling at independence from Britain in 1980, is now pegged at 250 to the greenback at the official rate.
Between May and September 2003 the country experienced critical cash shortages that prompted the Reserve Bank to issue three of the new temporary notes, the highest of which was for Z$20 000.
Last month President Robert Mugabe’s government ordered businesses to halve the prices of their goods and services, saying some shop owners were colluding with Mugabe’s enemies to plot his downfall by incessantly increasing prices and fuelling inflation. — Sapa-AFP