Zimbabwe introduces $100 billion note
Posted Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:23am AEST
Updated Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:44am AEST
Zimbabwe, grappling with a record 2.2 million per cent inflation, has introduced a new 100 billion dollar bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages, the central bank has said.
The new note will go into circulation on Monday, the bank said in a statement cited by state media, joining about half a dozen new high denomination notes already issued this year.
But one Zimbabwean told the BBC that the new note would not even cover the cost of his bus fare home from work.
"It's worthless," he said.
"Nowadays for my expenses per day, I need about 500 billion. So a hundred billion can't do anything. Because for me to go home, I need like, 250 billion. So this hundred is worthless."
In January, a 10 million dollar note was issued, then a 50 million dollar note in April. In May, notes for 100 million and 250 million dollars were issued, swiftly followed by those for 5 billion, 25 billion and 50 billion.
The southern African nation, currently gripped by a post-election crisis, has been ravaged by hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 per cent in February to 2.2 million in June.
Independent economists however believe the official inflation figure is grossly understated, estimating it could be running between 10 million and 15 million per cent.
Zimbabwe's chronic economic crisis has left at least 80 per cent of the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages of basic goods in shops.
- AFP/BBC
