The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has announced that it will be phasing out its hyper inflated local currency and going to adopt US dollar as official currency.
Starting Monday, June 15, Zimbabweans will exchange bank accounts up to Z$175 quadrillion (175,000,000,000,000,000 Zimbawean dollars) for U.S.$5, and higher bank balances will be exchanged at a rate of Z$35 quadrillion (35,000,000,000,000,000) to U.S.$1, according to BBC News.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said on Friday that the Zimbabwean dollar will be decommissioned until September 30, The Herald Zimbabwe reported.
The central bank asked customers who have old Zimdollars to walk into any bank and exchange them.
"We need therefore to safeguard the integrity of the multiple currency system or dollarisation in Zimbabwe. Demonetisation is therefore critical for policy consistency and for enhancing consumer and business confidence," RBZ governor John Mangudya explained regarding Zimbabwe's need for this transition. "The old currency must be retired or decommissioned," Mangudya said, according to News Day.
The southern African nation started to use foreign currencies, mostly the U.S. dollar and the South African rand, in 2009 after massive inflation.
"People went through a difficult process in terms of inflation. Yes, we know that there was hyper-inflation. We need to ensure that as a country we move forward," Mangudya said, the Agence France Presse reported.
The Zimbabwean central bank had printed its highest and last bank note in 2008, which was worth Z$100 trillion. Since then, Zimdollars remained in informal use.
Zimbabwe's citizens, however, remain unenthusiastic and unlikely to respond to process as Zimdollars are already out from markets. "I used it as garden manure. Why would I have kept that dirt?" a street vendor said, according o CBC Canada.
Zimbabwe's economy is struggling under President Robert Mugabe's policies. Ninety-one-year-old Mugabe has been country's President since 1987. "Where money for projects has not been found, we will print it," Mugabe was quoted as saying few years back, Business insider reported.
