Zimbabwe’s central bank has introduced gold coins in an effort to combat surging inflation and a currency fall.
The central bank’s primary interest rate was more than quadrupled to 200% this month after annual inflation surpassed 190 %.
Each coin will be priced at the international market rate for an ounce of gold + 5% for manufacturing costs.
An ounce of gold was valued approximately $1,724 (£1,435) on Friday.
According to the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya, the coins will be usable in shops if they have enough change.
The coin is called “Mosi-oa-Tunya,” which means “The Smoke Which Thunders,” and it relates to Victoria Falls, which is located on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
This year, the Zimbabwean dollar has lost value against major currencies.
The country still remembers the economic catastrophe that reigned for over four decades under the late Robert Mugabe.
In 2009, hyperinflation drove it to dump the Zimbabwe dollar in favor of foreign currencies, namely the US dollar.
The government stopped providing official inflation estimates during the midst of the crisis, but one estimate put the rate at 89.7 trillion percent year on year in mid-November 2008.
At the time, the 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar bank note was considered as a symbol of the country’s economic collapse.
A decade later, the local currency was reinstated, but it quickly lost value again.
