Zimbabwe’s troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.
The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday.
As high as they are, though, the bills still aren’t enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges.
The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar.
Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980, with the official inflation rate now at 2.2 million percent.
Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the new notes are for “the convenience of the banking public and corporate sector” in light of price hikes.
“The RBZ has noted with concern the unjustifiable and incessant general increases in prices of goods and services. It is therefore appealing to the business community to follow ethical business practices as well as take an interest in the plight of the general public,” Gono said in a statement dated Friday.
(CNN)
Original link – http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/07/19/zimbabwe.banknotes/index.html
Tits and Violence 