[Aljazeera] Harare, Zimbabwe - The Zimbabwean dollar is collapsing against the United States dollar on the country's black market, as confidence in the local currency hits rock bottom.Newsweek April 6, 1976. How much time do we now have ?
The Zimbabwean dollar or Zimdollar encompasses the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollar as well as bond notes and electronic money balances.
On Friday morning, it took 20 Zimdollars to buy one US dollar hard currency note on Harare's black market exchanges. Two weeks ago, around 10 Zimdollars bought one US dollar note on the black market.
The Zimdollar is also plummeting on Zimbabwe's managed interbank foreign currency market, which values the local currency more favourably. As of Friday, it took 14 Zimdollars to buy one US dollar at interbank exchange rates.
Some black market foreign exchange (forex) dealers believe the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe might be driving up the value of foreign currencies against the Zimdollar because the central bank needs foreign exchange to finance critical imports such as food and fuel.