Zimbabwe’s central bank said on Monday it will introduce new higher-value banknotes in its latest attempt to ease the effects of hyperinflation. The Z-million and Z-million bills will go into effect from Tuesday. ”The move is meant to minimise inconveniences to the banking public,” central bank Governor Gideon Gono said.
Zimbabwe has decided to float its local currency on foreign-exchange markets in an attempt to eliminate speculation on the black market, the governor of the central bank said Wednesday. The official exchange rate in Zimbabwe has been kept at Z$30 000 for US$1 since September 2007.
If this was the day that the big change would take place, Harare did not look the part. If it weren’t for the posters and the tent structures for polling stations on open land, one would be forgiven for thinking this was just another sleepy public holiday in the capital of Zimbabwe.
A new equity law passed by President Robert Mugabe to ensure the population gets a majority stake in public-owned firms will plunge Zimbabwe into deeper economic woes, analysts predicted on Monday. "It will entail the destruction of the economy," Harare-based economist Godfrey Kanyenze said.
Simba Makoni’s decision to enter the presidential race is a ploy by former colonial power Britain to divide Zimbabweans, a state-controlled newspaper reported President Robert Mugabe as saying on Wednesday. Mugabe told ruling Zanu-PF supporters at a rally that voters have to ”bury British regime-change schemes”, the Herald reported.
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/ 1 February 2008
Simon Kamunhukamwe just shrugged when Zimbabwe’s official inflation figure topped 26 000%. Exploding prices have become a part of life and protesting against the economic meltdown can be risky, especially as President Robert Mugabe digs in for elections next month.
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/ 1 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s inflation hit a record 26 470,8% in November 2007, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said in a monetary policy statement on Thursday. The figure rose from 7 982,1% in September. Zimbabwe’s Central Bank produced no inflation data for October.
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/ 27 January 2008
The notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has been arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of breaking the troubled country’s currency exchange laws and possessing pornography. Police detained Van Hoogstraten after a raid on his home last Thursday, charging him with collecting rent on his properties in foreign currency.
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/ 22 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s bank chief Gideon Gono did not hold his long-awaited name-and-shame meeting with a parliamentary committee this week because Parliament has adjourned until April, state radio said on Tuesday. Gono was on Monday scheduled to give a damning report on top officials he calls cash barons.
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/ 22 January 2008
President Robert Mugabe’s government has ordered banks to end a banknote shortage or risk being closed, state media reported on Wednesday. Banknotes have joined the long list of basic commodities in short supply in the Southern African country, which is grappling with an acute economic crisis blamed on Mugabe’s policies.
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/ 22 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank chief has accused local banks of creating ”artificial” cash shortages by failing to collect money from the country’s main bank for distribution to clients. Some banking institutions ”have been noted to be engaging in imprudent and unethical practices”, Gideon Gono, central bank governor, told journalists and bankers on Monday.
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/ 18 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank introduced new higher value banknotes on Friday that failed to ease a cash shortage that has kept commercial banks busy with long queues of desperate residents wanting to withdraw money. Banknotes have joined a growing list of basic items in short supply in the crisis-hit country.
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/ 16 January 2008
New banknotes, including a Z$10-million bill, will go into circulation in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe this week, the central bank’s governor said on Wednesday. Less than a month after announcing a similar move, Gideon Gono said the new notes would provide much-needed relief to consumers who often have to go shopping with sacks of cash.
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/ 15 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor is due to appear before a special parliamentary committee next week to give evidence on top officials allegedly hoarding vast sums of cash, official media said on Tuesday. Since late last year thousands of Zimbabweans have struggled to get their money out of banks.
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/ 13 January 2008
Kennedy Tsambo’s faith in Zimbabwe’s banking system finally hit breaking point over Christmas when he spent an ultimately fruitless three days queuing to withdraw cash in order to buy a bus fare home. ”This was not a donation that I was queuing for, it’s my own money which I should be able to withdraw as and when I like,” said the 37-year-old.
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/ 31 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank chief announced on Monday that he was extending a deadline for consumers to exchange their Z 000 bills, just hours before they were to cease being legal tender. The legal status of the Z 000 bearer cheque notes is ”now reinstated”, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono announced at a news conference.
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/ 31 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson has accused former colonial power Britain and other Western countries of sabotaging Zimbabwe’s efforts to turn around its economy by offering a safe haven to criminals. The comments came after an MP from Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, David Butau, fled to Britain last week.
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/ 30 December 2007
A legislator in Zimbabwe’s ruling party has fled to Britain, fearing arrest in a police probe of foreign-currency payments he made last month, official media reported on Sunday. The state-owned Sunday Mail quoted unnamed sources as saying police wanted to interview David Butau, the Zanu-PF MP for a northern constituency.
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/ 30 December 2007
Bare supermarket shelves, bank queues and burst riverbanks — for many Zimbabweans a bad year ended in a bad way. At least 27 Zimbabweans died in floods this month while thousands have spent precious holiday days in bank queues, waiting for scarce cash.
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/ 29 December 2007
Zimbabweans formed queues at banks on Saturday to beat a December 31 deadline to hand in a currency series phased out by the central bank. Reserve Bank chief Gideon Gono declared that the Z$200 000 note would become worthless as he introduced three new banknotes in a bid to tackle a shortage of the local currency in the country.
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/ 27 December 2007
After a year which saw the official inflation rate surge to 8 000%, shelves run dry and opposition leaders beaten up, few people in Zimbabwe can wait to see the back of 2007. While President Robert Mugabe hopes to secure a seventh term of office in elections next year, he is unlikely to trade heavily on his government’s recent economic performance.
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/ 24 December 2007
For many in inflation-riddled Zimbabwe this year, Christmas isn’t quite what it used to be. In a glitzy department store on Harare’s main First Street, there are no customers at the almost bare perfume counters. Upstairs in the toy department, Santa has disappeared from his grotto. Outside, about 500 weary customers queue for cash at a bank.
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/ 19 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s top banker announced on Wednesday the immediate introduction of higher denominations of banknotes in a bid to tackle cash shortages fed by runaway inflation. With effect from Thursday, Z 000, Z 000 and Z 000 notes will come into circulation.
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/ 27 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s latest inflation figures have been delayed because there are not enough goods in the shops by which to measure price increases, it was reported on Tuesday. There was an ”unavailability of required information, such as prices of goods, due to their shortage”, the Herald quoted Moffat Nyoni, director of the Central Statistical Office, as saying.
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/ 23 November 2007
Zimbabwe prepared on Friday to slash three more zeros from its currency for the second time in a year, as inflation soars in the crippled economy. Central bank Governor Gideon Gono said after months of planning, the issue of new currency bills was ”imminent”, state television and radio reported. The television showed a sample of a new Z note.
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/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabwe will soon issue new bank notes, for the second time in as many years, to try to control rampant inflation and curb black-market trade, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. The Southern African country is in the grips of a severe economic crisis and battling the highest annual inflation rate in the world, at nearly 8 000%.
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/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor said on Tuesday the country would not impose new price controls, easing fears of deeper shortages of basic goods. President Robert Mugabe’s government imposed a blanket freeze on prices of all goods and services in June in a desperate bid to contain the world’s highest inflation rate.
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/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabweans endured hours in long queues at banks on Tuesday as a cash shortage forced limits on withdrawals, with the country in the midst of an economic crisis. ”Things have gotten worse since the weekend,” said an official at a bank in central Harare where a queue of customers snaked outside the building.
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/ 3 November 2007
Trevor Ncube’s article ("Opportunity knocks for Zimbabwe", October 5) cannot go unchallenged. One would have expected him to make use of his lofty position to differentiate clearly the forest from the trees where the situation in this wretched country is concerned, writes Ketayi Makosa.
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/ 28 October 2007
An escalating energy crisis has pulled the plug on hopes of reviving Zimbabwe’s economy as production grinds to a halt in a manufacturing sector already battling sky-high inflation. Although central bank chief Gideon Gono said that shelves would soon be full again after a pricing crackdown, analysts say the power deficit will accelerate the meltdown as inflation nears 8 000%.
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/ 27 October 2007
President Robert Mugabe has dismissed claims by the Zimbabwe opposition that its supporters are victims of politically motivated violence, state media reported on Saturday. Mugabe challenged the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to substantiate allegations of attacks on its followers, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.
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/ 24 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank chief pledged on Wednesday that empty shop shelves would soon be replenished as he denounced the ”anarchy” inspired by the government’s order for retailers to slash their prices in half. Gideon Gono said the availability of goods was improving after widespread shortages that he acknowledged were sparked by the blitz.