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Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will today unveil special coins that will help ease the problem of change in the economy.
Availability of the coins is expected to result in the reduction in prices of commodities as most prices had been priced to the next dollar.RBZ spokesperson Alson Mufiri told our correspondent yesterday that the governor John Mangudya will unveil the special coins to journalists.
The special coins are of 1c, 5c, 10c, 20c, and 50c and their values would be at par with the US cents.
“The governor will meet the media today and unveil the new special coins and it is of utmost importance that journalists will see the coins physically.
“The governor will also explain to the media how the coins will be working and the reason why RBZ has taken that direction,” said Mufiri.
Sometime this year, Mangudya told our correspondent that RBZ has arranged a $50 million bond facility to address coins shortage in the country.
He said the first $20 million worth of special coins are expected in the country and that the country cannot print the special coins that will be used at par with the United States dollars as it was expensive for the country.
The introduction of the special coins had of late raised fears that government wanted to return the Zimbabwe dollar to replace the multicurrency regime.
In his mid-term fiscal policy review, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government had no appetite to change the multicurrency policy urging the nation to take comfort in the continuous reassurance from both the monetary and fiscal authorities.
Mangudya had also said they don’t want to bring back the Zimbabwean dollar due to confidence issues.
Since the use of the multicurrency system in 2009 businesses have been issuing their customers with vouchers redeemable at particular shops and sweets as change.
Mangudya said the move to introduce special coins was not peculiar to Zimbabwe as the country once used the currency board in 1938.
A currency board is a monetary authority which is required to maintain a fixed exchange rate with a foreign currency.
The central bank is planning to import special coins with similar value to those currently circulating in the economy to ease a shortage of change in the economy.
Online Reporter