Zimbabwe Bans International Currency Use

Zimbabwe has banned the use of international currencies in the country, including the US dollar and South African rand. They will no longer be recognised as legal tender.

On Monday the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe confirmed that it would return to the Zimbabwean dollar. Money held in foreign currency accounts will not be affected.

The Zimbabwean dollar was previously abandoned in 2008 after inflation reached 500 billion per cent. The US dollar was adopted in 2009 and a basket of international currencies have been in use, with the government introducing the RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) dollar in February 2019 as part of plans to introduce a new currency. Following its introduction and an announcement that the RTGS and bond notes will no longer be pegged to the US dollar the value of the currency took a serious hit. Inflation now stands at almost 100 per cent.