Zimbabwe ‘zombie currency’ hits streets as bond notes arrive
Zimbabwean police sealed off the city centre of Harare and opened fire with water cannons as protests erupted in the capital over the government’s introduction of bond notes. Phone calls to police for confirmation by the Bloomberg correspondent witnessing events went unanswered. Zimbabwe’s central bank has started adding bond notes — printed by the government and backed by dollars — into the financial system, delivering the currency over the weekend to banks in the country. With no currency of its own, Zimbabwe allows the use of a basket of foreign exchange including the rand, the euro and the pound. The bond notes are intended to reduce a shortage of hard currency that has led to delays of several months in salary payments to public servants, the military and some private company employees. Zimbabweans have taken to the streets in protest against the new currency, fearing a return to hyperinflation that peaked at the end of 2008, when the International Monetary Fund said inflation ...
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