Zimbabwe introduces new currency

Zimbabwe's central bank has said it will introduce a new currency on 1 August as part of efforts to fight the effects of hyperinflation.

The governor, Gideon Gono, has announced zeros will be lopped off the Zimbabwe dollar, making 10bn dollars one dollar.

Only last week, the government introduced the Z$100bn note.

Inflation is officially running at more than 2,000,000%, but economists believe the real rate is far higher.

"The Zimbabwe dollar will be redenominated by a factor of one to 10, which means we are removing 10 zeros from our monetary value. Ten billion dollars today will be reduced to Z$1... effective from 1 August," Mr Gono said in a television broadcast.

He said the high rate constrained the operations of the country's computer systems.

Computers, calculators and banks' cash machines have not been able to handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars.

The new Z$100bn note introduced last week was not enough to buy a loaf of bread.

So far this year, Zimbabwe has been forced to print Z$100m, Z$250m and Z$500m notes in rapid succession, now mostly worthless.

Source: BBC