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Zimbabwe to Phase Out Worthless Currency With Trade-In Plan
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HARARE, Zimbabwe, June 13 (UPI) — The Zimbabwean government will begin trading 5 U.S. dollars for every 175 quadrillion local dollars it collects beginning Monday in an effort to rid the country of what’s left over of its hyperinflated currency.
For those with more Zimbabwe dollars, officials will trade according to the exchange rate of $1 for every 35 quadrillion — that is, 35 followed by 15 zeroes — Zimbabwean notes. The collection process will end on Sept. 30, after which Zimdollars will be entirely worthless.
The decision was announced Thursday in an effort by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to legally demonetize the Zimdollar and replace it with the U.S. dollar, which had unofficially come to be used alongside the South African Rand and other currencies in 2009.
The Zimdollar hit rock-bottom in November 2008, when due to over-printing, prices would rise at least twice every day. The hyperinflation of the local currency led to many impoverished trillionaires and a broken economy. At the height of it, inflation rates hit 80,000,000,000 percent on a monthly basis and caused it to become the second worst hyperinflation story in history, just behind postwar Hungary.
The demonetization method announced by RBZ governor Dr. John Mangudya is meant to reinforce the government’s support of the country’s now multi-currency system and, according to him, enhance citizens’ trust and confidence in the economy.
