Zimbabwe’s government denies reports it may introduce a new currency this week, amid fears that such a move would worsen the country’s economic crisis.
Zimbabwe abolished its hyper-inflation-destroyed currency in 2009 and mainly uses the US dollar.
In a tweet on its official account, the ministry of information, publicity and broadcasting services denied that there were plans to introduce a new currency.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) also tweeted:
Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is a senior official of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Party, termed those plans as “undiluted insanity”.
“That move is pure undiluted insanity. An un-bankable currency is just the bond note by another name. There is no country in the world that has voluntarily dollarised and that has ever succeeded in de-dollarising,” he said in a tweet.
The Zimbabwean government described Biti’s comments as ‘fake news’.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has said Zimbabwe’s new currency would be released by the end of the year.
