The country's Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced today that all businesses in Zimbabwe could now deal in foreign currencies. The decision came a couple of weeks after the Central Bank of Zimbabwe announced the printing of a $100 trillion bill (yes, that's trillion with a “T”), which at the time was worth about $30 in US currency and now is worth far, far less because of the country’s runaway inflation. A thriving black market has been operating in Zimbabwe for some time now where merchants trade goods for ‘hard’ foreign currencies including US dollars, South African rand and Botswana pula.
Can you spare a $500 billion?
But the decision is still unlikely to ease the crisis in Zimbabwe, where civil society is now grinding to a halt along with the economy. Teachers are refusing to report for the start of the school year since, in US dollars, the daily bus fare to work is double their monthly salary. Doctors and nurses are also refusing to report for work both because of the low salaries and lack of medical supplies. Months ago doctors were warning anyone who thought about coming to the hospital to bring their own medicine, sheets and bandages since they had none there to use of the patients.
Zimbabwe is still in the grips of a cholera outbreak that has killed an estimated 3,000 people so far and that shows no signs of letting up. Meanwhile President Obama has weighed in on the stalled power-sharing talks between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Obama spoke with South Africa’s Kgalema Motlanthe and urged him to “show leadership” in resolving the dispute. Most observers believe that South Africa could put severe pressure on the Mugabe regime with an economic boycott, but South African leaders have repeatedly refused to use this option to force Mugabe to agree to a legitimate power-sharing deal.
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