Zimbabwe Dollar gets re-introduced
Zimbabwe Dollar gets re-introduced
The bankrupt Zimbabwean government of President Robert Mugabe has hatched a secret plan to raid the U.S. dollar accounts of citizens and give the owners worthless coins.
Central bank governor John Mangudya announced Friday that the ‘special bond coins’ would go into circulation on December 18th 2014.
However, what the governor did not tell the public, is that on the same day, Mangudya will also announce that account holders will no longer be permitted to withdraw more than US$200 at any one time.
Mangudya claimed the coins would be a “good store for value”, a claim dismissed by economists as false.
“These coins will only be accepted as currency in Zimbabwe. Why would that be if the coins are at par with U.S. currency?” queried economist Phillip Maregere of FMG Capital in Johannesburg.
You can’t just invent a currency and say that it is on a par with the US Dollar.
“There is no law which says banks are under obligation to exchange the coins for U.S. dollars, or that the RBZ will immediately compensate the banks for their trouble. Mangudya may have sugar-coated bringing in the coins with good intentions, it may even look good on paper, but implementation will be problematic.”
Government sources said the Reserve Bank will create artificial shortages of U.S. dollars to make businesses accept the so-called ‘bond coins’ or centavos as some now call them.
“If you have any foreign currency in the bank, now is the time to take it all out, before the withdrawal limits are imposed. A lot of people are going to lose money in the banks when the accounts are frozen. This has happened before, when Gono slashed the zeroes and when Zimdollars were rendered worthless upon adoption of the multi-currency regime,” said a senior government source.