‘No higher-value notes soon’

Sunday Mail Reporter

The GOVERNMENT will not rush to introduce new higher-denomination banknotes before undertaking a rigorous assessment to ascertain whether adding more paper money into the market will affect the stability of the Zimbabwe dollar.

This comes as some public transport operators and informal traders in the capital are no longer accepting $20 notes as legal tender, months after they also rejected $10 and $5 notes, effectively taking them out of circulation.

However, large retailers are accepting all Zimbabwe dollar notes.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube told The Sunday Mail that there was need to examine the efficacy of introducing higher-value banknotes.

“I cannot say right now whether we will bring new notes, but the truth is the Zimbabwe dollar comes in two forms — in cash and electronic, so one has an option to either use cash or electronic money,” he said. We have to do an analysis before we add any notes and see if it’s the right thing to do or not.

“The central bank does these things and they do a very good job.”

All Zimbabwe dollar notes and coins, he said, remain legal tender.

“It is legal tender; whoever is rejecting it is actually committing an offence . . .”

Last year, Government managed to tame the volatility of the Zimbabwe dollar by reining in market indiscipline.

“As you know, things are quite stable right now; we have put in place a raft of measures to ensure stability.

“We have positive interest rates, we have fiscal discipline and we have implemented a variety of measures to make sure our currency remains stable.”