Zimbabwe's economy

Gideon Gono, a way with money

Has Gono’s new money run out already?

The newly re-introduced old coins caused a wave of delight last week as everyone dug around, gathering up all their ‘old money’ from the bottom of tins that had been sitting in the cupboard for years, purses and wallets that had become archaic, and from the taps that they were placed in as a cheap alternative to washers.

The old money, previously discarded, had now become valuable. A friend told me that her family laughed at her for keeping a shoebox of these old coins under her wardrobe, but those same coins, re-introduced and re-valued, now amounted to over 10 times her normal monthly wage, and a ‘gazillion‘ times more than their original intended face value.It seemed incredible that Gono would be unconcerned about all the money already on the market from previous years, but he was. Shake off the dust, and go shopping!!!

And that’s exactly what happened.

On Friday 1 August there was a frenzy of spending on the few items that were available in the shops and the already sparse shelves were soon stripped. In the morning, bread cost $150,000,000,000-00 ($15.00 revalued) but by mid-day the price had increased to $280,000,000,000-00 ($28.00 revalued). Transport costs doubled from $50 billion to $100 billion overnight.

Gono’s latest financial decision was like putting a stick of dynamite under inflation. Prices have once again rocketed.

All here.