Zim warned against ‘stupidity’ of trying to resuscitate a ‘dead’ currency with IMF funds

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube

The Government of Zimbabwe recently said it is planning to use $500 million of its $961 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) funds to save its currency.

However, renowned world economist at John Hopkins University, Professor Steve Hanke says this is stupidity, a waste of funds as the Zimbabwean dollar has lost 82.9% of its value against the USD since January 2020.

Hanke believes the currency has gone past a stage at which it could be resuscitated and urges Zimbabwe to dollarize without any delay.

“The government of Zimbabwe plans to use $500mil of its $961mil IMF funds to save its currency.

“What stupidity. What a waste of funds.

“The Zimbabwean dollar has lost 82.9% of its value against the USD since Jan 2020. Zimbabwe must dollarize immediately,” says Hanke.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s annual inflation slowed to 50.24% in August, from 56.37% in July, the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZimStat) says.

The Agency says month-on-month inflation for August was 4.18%, 1.62 percentage points higher than July. Govenment expects inflation to fall to between 22% and 35% by December 2021.

Zwnews