Biti says bringing back Zim dollar the “stupidest” thing

Former Finance Minister today said that bringing that the Zimbabwe dollar would be the “stupidest” thing that the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front government could do but then ZANU-PF was known for doing stupid things. He told SW Radio: “While it will be stupid to bring back the Zimbabwean dollar let us remember that ZANU PF is known for doing stupid things. There is nothing that can stop them from printing the Zimbabwean dollar; they can print trillions of that but how will they get them into the market? They might force it on the civil servants but all service providers will reject that money.” Biti was commenting on reports from the South African media that ZANU-PF might bring back the Zimbabwe dollar to escape the funding crisis that the government is currently facing. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has, repeatedly said the local currency is not coming back any time soon and has increased the number of currencies that can be traded in the country. “There is no country in the world that has dollarized involuntarily like we did that has been able to get back to its own currency. They tried it in Cuba that failed,” Biti said. This was particularly so when for every dollar that was coming to Zimbabwe, seven were going out, he said.

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