Zimbabwe’s currency ‘curse’ and the economic malaise

The new Zimbabwean dollar won't stabilise soon, so re-adopting a foreign currency needs to be considered.

Zimbabwe has been plagued by currency problems. In June 2019 the government banned the multicurrency system and reintroduced the defunct Zimbabwean dollar. The move was intended to address the fast-deteriorating economic crisis and bring sanity to foreign currency supply and demand, in a broader context of economic and political failure. This policy brief discusses Zimbabwe’s currency crisis and its implications for macroeconomic stabilisation.

About the author

Keith Jefferis is a consultant in the Peace Operations and Peacebuilding programme of the Institute for Security Studies. He is a former deputy governor of the Bank of Botswana and an expert on monetary policy.

Picture: Amelia Broodryk/ISS