News / National
'Govt to bring back Zim dollar,' say Biti
18 Dec 2013 at 04:05hrs | Views
Former Finance minister Tendai Biti said yesterday the Zanu-PF government would be forced to reintroduce the shelved Zimbabwe dollar next year to avert total economic collapse.
He said the sad truth of the matter is that the Zimbabwean dollar will be back and it was a matter of it, but when.
However, last week RBZ acting governor Charity Dhliwayo ruled out the possibility of the re-introduction of the local currency in the short term while Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has also repeatedly said the same.
Zimbabwe abandoned its local currency in 2009 after it had been ravaged by hyperinflation which topped 231 million and introduced a basket of foreign currencies dominated in the United States.
Biti said since September revenues have collapsed and the government cannot meet its wage bill and other obligations and added that the economy was dead, government may fail to pay civil servants salaries in the coming months as revenue inflows to treasury continues to dwindle.
Biti told journalists and diplomats during a media briefing in Harare yesterday on the state of economy, that the economy was running on auto cruise. He said economic indicators showed that there will be serious shrink of 23% in the agricultural sector, 32% in mining while the economy will grow by between 1.5% to 2.8% next year.
He said the sad truth of the matter is that the Zimbabwean dollar will be back and it was a matter of it, but when.
However, last week RBZ acting governor Charity Dhliwayo ruled out the possibility of the re-introduction of the local currency in the short term while Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has also repeatedly said the same.
Biti said since September revenues have collapsed and the government cannot meet its wage bill and other obligations and added that the economy was dead, government may fail to pay civil servants salaries in the coming months as revenue inflows to treasury continues to dwindle.
Biti told journalists and diplomats during a media briefing in Harare yesterday on the state of economy, that the economy was running on auto cruise. He said economic indicators showed that there will be serious shrink of 23% in the agricultural sector, 32% in mining while the economy will grow by between 1.5% to 2.8% next year.
Source - newsday
