Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has dismissed reports that the central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will, in two weeks time, introduce “new currency” notes and coins.
His remarks are a clear departure from remarks earlier given by RBZ governor, Dr John Mangudya who had told reporters this Tuesday that the central bank was to introduce new notes and coins for the new currency.
Mangudya also added that the introduction of the new currency money will see the country having both the bond notes which was introduced in 2016 and the new currency money. He said:
We’re going to be releasing the currency, the coins and the notes, to ensure we don’t starve the market. We also want to revise the limits upwards so people do not pay a premium for cash. Within the next two weeks, we will be having the cash.
We are going to have two things, we have bond coins in circulation and bond notes of $2 notes and the $5 note. We are going to have bond coins of $2 in circulation and we are going to have $2 of currency money (notes) and $5 notes of currency money in circulation.
Ncube, however, refuted the claims saying that the Zimbabwe dollar was already on the market hence no need to introduce the new currency.
He said the government is merely injecting the cash into the market to deal with the issue of divisibility as was the case when bond notes were introduced.
More: Mangudya On New Currency; Ncube Refutes New Currency Claims