Zimbabwe should adopt the rand, says former finance minister Tendai Biti
The call is an endorsement of the government’s efforts to link Zimbabwe’s economy to SA’s currency
Zimbabwe should adopt the rand as its currency, one of a series of fundamental reforms needed to restore economic stability in the country, says the country’s former finance minister, Tendai Biti. His call is an endorsement of the government’s efforts to link Zimbabwe’s economy to SA’s currency as it grapples with a foreign-exchange shortage that has spawned the fastest price increases since hyperinflation a decade ago. Zimbabwe abolished its own currency in 2009 and mainly uses the US dollar. The American currency is too strong for the Zimbabwean economy, Biti said on Friday in an interview in Johannesburg. Joining the so-called Common Monetary Area, in which Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini peg their currencies to the rand, would reduce costs, he said. “The advantage of joining a rand monetary union would be that it would foist some much-needed discipline on the Zimbabwean economy,” Biti said. “It would also enhance regional integration,” by giving manufacturers in the country access...
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