Zimbabwe Govt, people, banks, shops, ATMs run out of cash

A severe  liquidity crisis is affecting the Zimbabwe money market causing a serious problem for government, banks, individuals and local businesses.

A snap survey carried out by independent researchers this weekend shows that the country is in a state of financial crises as there is not enough cash  flowing around.

A number of Zimswitch ATM facilities have been disabled and customers were unable to receive cash backs from some supermarkets in the capital yesterday.

Local farmers were also not able to access their money as some ATMs were off and they were only allowed to take very small amounts from banking halls due to the ongoing crises.

A highly placed source who refused to be named told reporters that the problem has been going on since the end of last year when the government failed for the first time to pay bonuses due to cash problems.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya confirmed the cash challenge and appealed to the banking public to adopt the use of plastic money in order to minimise high demand for cash associated with traditional payment dates.

However,  experts say promoting the use of plastic money in a highly informalised economy would be difficult as many people did not have facilities and resources to do card transactions.