The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will introduce $10 and $20 banknotes worth close to $600 million before the end of this month.
This was said by a member of the RBZ Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Eddie Cross who told the Sunday News that an announcement of the new notes was imminent. He said:
The plans are far advanced and higher denomination notes will be made available to the public sometime later this month. The Reserve Bank will make the announcement.
They (the notes) are being printed and the appropriate date will be announced soon. We had a meeting yesterday of the MPC and the Governor confirmed to us that the rollout will be in stages so it won’t be a full range of notes initially, but it will only be higher denomination notes.
Cross said banks will be required to exchange their electronic balances for physical cash to ensure that no new money is created.
Dirty, torn and worn out notes will be removed from circulation as the new notes are introduced onto the market, Cross added.
While the introduction higher denomination notes in our inflationary time is welcome, more welcome would be the opportunity to go to a bank on any day at any time and be assured of withdrawing money .And not a paltry amount as has been the case for several years now.
Hope the new notes will be for suffering workers not for some few greedy money changers