Zimbabwe Launches New Currency to Ease Cash Crunch [photo]

 

Zimbabwe has launched a new currency that the authorities hope will ease a severe cash shortage, but critics fear it will only worsen the country's economic problems.  

Zimbabwe which has been ruled by Robert Mugabe, 92, since 1980 is currency under severe economic crunch. Some observers have called the bond notes the autocratic president’s “last gamble”.

The central bank says bond notes will ease crippling shortages of currency, but there are fears their introduction could encourage rampant printing of cash, as happened in 2008.

Only the introduction of the dollar as the official currency in 2009 halted an economic meltdown.

In recent months there has been unrest after the Zimbabwean government was repeatedly forced to delay salary payments to teachers, doctors, soldiers and administrators.

The country is also suffering high unemployment, a severe drought and is threatened by famine in some parts. 

The bond notes will be officially interchangeable 1:1 with the US dollar, and banking officials said last week they would be deposited directly into US dollar accounts, where they would be reflected as dollar balances. 

Ofcourse Zimbabwean themselves are worried this may not solve their situation, but do you see any possibility in a new currency solving economic recession? Would you recommend same approach to Nigeria's president Buhari?