From Monday, according to news report by uk.finance.yahoo.com, bank customers who held Zimbabwean dollar accounts before March 2009 and have balances up to Z$175 quadrillion will be paid a flat US$5. This is so as Zimbabwe is set to scrap its local currency from next week at a fixed exchange rate of $35,000,000,000,000,000 old dollars per US$1. President Robert Mugabe’s government will phase out the virtually worthless currency from Monday, the Central Bank announced yesterday.
Anyone in the southern African country still holding Zim dollars will be forced to swap their quadrillions for a handful of U.S. ones. The largest denomination available in the old currency is a 100 trillion dollar note. The note – now worth 40 cents – was not enough to buy a weekly bus ticket.
Zimbabwe began using the U.S. dollar and the South African Rand in 2009, after the Zimbabwean dollar was ruined by hyperinflation, which struck at 500bn percent. At the peak of the crisis in 2008, the global financial crisis meant Zimbabweans had to carry around massive wads of bank notes just to buy basics like bread. Now they could be given as little as £3.25 for handing over their life savings.
Source; uk.finance.yahoo.com
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