LETTICIA MAGOMBO
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will introduce a ZWL$100 note for ease of convenience to farmers during the tobacco marketing season.
The bank note was gazetted yesterday in Statutory Instrument 68A of 2022 by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube.
Part of the SI reads: “…On the front side the dominant feature shall be the logo of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), three balancing rocks with the visually impaired recognition feature to the left, latent image showing the denomination , windowed security strip inscribed “RBZ” with colour shift from red to green, watermark with highlighted inscription “RBZ” and see-through of Zimbabwe bird looking to the left in perfect register, as secondary features.
On the back side there shall be an impression of Great Zimbabwe Monument and the Baobab Tree, gold coloured iridescent band showing the denomination of the note and see-through of the Zimbabwe Bird looking to the right.”
RBZ governor John Mangudya said the central bank will release the note into the market soon.
“The ZWL$100 note should be issued now as it is time for higher demand for the local currency due to the opening of the tobacco selling season. In the near future the cotton selling season will also commence, hence we saw it prudent to release the new note,” Mangudya said.
He allayed fears the ZWL$100 note would push upwards the inflation rate. Annual inflation stood at 72,7% in March from 66,11% in February.
“This is the same amount you have in your account that you will be withdrawing. We have not increased money supply but issued a higher denominated note for transactional purposes,” Mangudya said.
The introduction of a higher denominated note comes as the official exchange rate stood at ZWL$145:US$1 this week.
On the parallel market the exchange rate was ZWL$300:US$1.
A loaf of bread currently costs ZW$273 signifying that the ZW$100 note has lost value way before entering the market in its physical form.
