Zimbabweans barred from taking +R14,000 cash when travelling outside the country

Zimbabwe's cash crisis is reportedly deepening, with banks said to have started imposing card use limits on travellers going abroad.

According to eNCA, Zimbabweans were barred from taking more than R14 000 cash when travelling outside the country.

Recent reports indicated that the southern African country's economic crisis was going from bad to worse, forcing hundreds of people to sleep outside their banks to be able to get money.

The country adopted the US dollar and South African rand in 2009 after massive inflation wreaked havoc to the economy and rendered the local currency worthless. But banks were now running out of US dollar reserves.

"Zimbabwe is not getting credit lines from international lending institutions like IMF and the World Bank.

"So that's why our situation is like that. But the Reserve Bank at the moment is trying to encourage what they call an export initiative," a Zimbabwean journalist was quoted as saying.

The government has announced plans to introduce a local currently called bond notes. It hopes that the cash injection will boost exports, benefit local businesses and ease the suffering of Zimbabwe's poor population.