The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is calling on the country’s citizens to start using the South African Rand as the country’s primary currency. This follows an acute shortage of United States dollars which has led the central to implement a priority list for foreign payments. Currently, there is $200 million in circulation instead of $1 billion which, the economy requires. In 2009, the government introduced the multi-currency system, but the general population had already adopted foreign currency unofficially.
Reserve Bank deputy governor Kupukile Mlambo said
We will be happy in the central bank if people use the Rand more than they would use the other currencies.
We can benchmark pricing with the rand, which we can’t do with the dollar because we trade almost nothing with the US.
However, Zimbabwe will not be joining the Rand union.
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