'Quitting multi-currency not easy,' says RBZ boss

Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya has said Zimbabwe will find it difficult to do away with a multi-currency system, dominated by the US dollar, due to huge recovery strides it must make to support its own currency.

Mangudya said many countries that dollarized have found it extremely difficult to do away with the US dollar; hence Zimbabwe will stick to the multi-currency regime for a considerable period.

Zimbabwe is battling to halt industrial haemorrhage due to old equipment and lack of capital to retool and recapitalise, which has compromised efficiency.

Mangudya said Zimbabwe over-dollarised, pointing out that 80 percent of transactions in the country were now conducted in the greenback and the balance in a handful of other currencies.

The central bank chief said because most countries dollarized to between 75 percent and 90 percent, Zimbabwe will find it difficult to dump the US dollar after almost full dollarisation.