RBZ governor, John Mangudya
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, John Mangudya, yesterday came face to face with business executives and entrepreneurs disturbed by plans to introduce bond notes in the country.
The bond notes, meant to be used as an incentive to exporters, are seen as a backdoor attempt by government to bring back the Zimbabwe dollar.
Scores of company executives and business owners told the RBZ governor at a no holds barred breakfast meeting in Harare that he had to shelve the plans for bond notes.
There has been unprecedented public loathing over any form of domestic currency in Zimbabwe since the country ditched its free-falling unit in 2009, after it had been eroded by hyperinflation, which reached 500 billion percent at the end of 2008.
A week after Mangudya said he would introduce ZW$200 million bond notes, backed by a US$200 million facility from the African Development Bank, business executives took an opportunity presented by a Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) meeting to express their disdain for the proposal.
Business warned that this would trigger a fresh wave of quantitative easing, or money printing, one of the problems blamed for the near collapse of the economy in 2008.