'RTGS$ is not a currency' says Minister

Deputy Government Spokesperson Energy Mutodi has confirmed a long standing asserting by Zimbabweans that the country does not have a currency and the recently introduced RTGS$ by the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe is not a currency.

"For a country that has no currency of its own, no competitive industry and no jobs, price control is the way to go in order to protect the poor." Mutodi said. "It's very unfortunate that cabinet has not foreseen this but it's time we take necessary steps."

Mutodi becomes the second Senior government official to speak on the currency in the recent past.

Last week Finance minister Mthuli Ncube told United States-based Bloomberg Television that Zimbabwe would have a new currency within the next 12 months.

Ncube got a rude awakening from Economist John Robertson  who said, " lack of respect of the currency will cause inflation, as the country has witnessed with the RTGS$ that was introduced in February. After holding firm at 1:2,5 for a few days, the RTGS$ has plunged and pushed up the prices of goods, raising fears that the country could be sliding back to the 2008 hyper-inflationary era when Zimbabwe experienced a record 179,6 billion percent inflation rate."

Zimbabwe has been without a currency of its own since it adopted the multiple currency system during the Government of National Unity in 2009.