Zimbabwe Manufacturers Urge Reserve Bank Chief To Lop Off More Zeroes

By Jonga Kandemiiri Washington
28 January 2009
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries has urged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to remove 12 zeroes from dollar bank notes and to halt its massive printing of new currency, saying this would help to stabilize the virtually worthless Zimbabwe dollar.
The business association also encouraged the use of alternative currencies such as the U.S. dollar, the South African rand and the British pound alongside the Zimbabwe dollar, with the local money remaining the official currency but not a compulsory unit of exchange.
The Reserve Bank redenominated the currency in 2007 and again last year, but each time the monetary authority found itself obliged to issue ever-larger denominations. Most recently it announced it would bring out a bank note for 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars, reflecting the hyperinflation which has hollowed out the economy at an accelerating rate.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze of the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that lopping off zeroes again will have no effect because the economy is now effectively dollarized.