Zimbabwe will continue using bond notes, a domestic quasi-currency, until the country’s economy fully recovers, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Wednesday.
The southern African nation began using the currency in November 2016 in a bid to ease shortages of U.S. dollars, the country’s official currency since 2009.
Since Emmerson Mnangagwa took over the presidency following the military ouster of 93-year-old Robert Mugabe, there has been speculation that the bond notes would be phased out.
“Bond notes will stay until we have our own local currency,” Reuters quotes Chinamasa to have told a business meeting in Harare.
The conditions needed to bring back a local currency include foreign currency reserves of more than three months, a lower budget deficit and higher exports and industrial production, Chinamasa said.
The bond notes, which are also in short supply, are pegged at par with the U.S. dollar but trade at a discount on the black market.
On Wednesday $1 was equivalent to $1.25 in bond notes.
