New ZiG Around the Corner

By Business Reporter-The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has announced the dates of the launch of the new Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) banknotes, stirring anxiety across the market, reopening old wounds in a country where currency changes have often been followed by rising prices and shrinking savings.

While the central bank insists there is no cause for alarm, many Zimbabweans are watching closely, shaped by a painful history of money printing and currency collapse that dates back more than two decades.


In an interview with The Sunday Mail, RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu sought to calm fears, saying the upgraded family of ZiG banknotes will not increase money supply or trigger inflation.

He explained that the issuance of new notes will be strictly demand-driven, meaning banks will simply exchange electronic balances for physical cash using their existing reserves held at the central bank.

“In this regard, the quantity of reserve money will not change as banks use their deposits at the Reserve Bank to buy the desired quantity of cash guided by the needs of their clients,” he said.

Put differently, he said, there will be no fresh injection of money into the system — only a swap between digital balances and physical notes.

The governor said further details will be outlined in the 2026 Monetary Policy Statement later this month.


The reassurance comes at a time when annual inflation has reportedly fallen to 4,1 percent in January 2026 — the first single-digit reading in nearly three decades. Official reserves backing ZiG have grown to US$1,2 billion, equivalent to about 1,5 months of import cover, from less than 0,2 months when the currency was introduced in April 2024.

Foreign currency receipts rose to US$16,2 billion in 2025 from US$13,3 billion the previous year, helping the country post an estimated current account surplus of US$2 billion.

Dr Mushayavanhu attributed the relative stability of ZiG to tight liquidity management, a market-determined exchange rate and improved coordination between fiscal and monetary authorities. He said the convergence between the interbank and parallel market exchange rates reflects growing confidence in the official system.

But public scepticism runs deep.

Zimbabwe’s modern currency crisis began in the early 2000s when the government increasingly financed fiscal deficits by printing money amid declining production and economic isolation. From 2003 onwards, inflation accelerated sharply as money supply expanded far beyond economic output.

By 2008, Zimbabwe experienced one of the worst hyperinflation episodes in recorded history. Inflation spiralled into the hundreds of millions percent. Prices doubled within days, sometimes hours. Supermarkets changed prices repeatedly in a single day. Workers rushed to spend wages immediately after being paid because their value evaporated almost overnight.


The central bank responded by printing higher and higher denomination notes — from thousands to millions, billions and eventually trillions — before the Zimbabwe dollar was abandoned entirely in 2009 in favour of a multi-currency system dominated by the US dollar.

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For nearly a decade, dollarisation brought relative price stability.

However, instability resurfaced in 2016 with the introduction of bond notes, followed by the reintroduction of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2019. Rapid expansion of money supply through deficit financing and quasi-fiscal activities again weakened the currency.Zimbabwean travel guide

Between 2019 and 2023, inflation surged into triple digits, at one stage exceeding 800 percent. Businesses increasingly priced goods in US dollars. The parallel market exchange rate diverged sharply from the official rate, and confidence in the local currency eroded further.

Today, although ZiG has reportedly stabilised and inflation has declined, confidence remains fragile. The local currency largely circulates within Zimbabwe and is not internationally convertible, limiting its acceptability beyond the country’s borders.

For many Zimbabweans, stability is not measured by policy statements but by lived experience — whether prices remain predictable and whether savings can hold value over time.

The RBZ maintains that this time is different, pointing to reserve backing, disciplined liquidity management and stronger foreign currency inflows. Yet the shadow of past money printing still looms large.

As the new ZiG banknotes prepare to enter circulation, the true test will not be in their design or issuance process, but in whether authorities can sustain fiscal discipline and resist the temptation to finance deficits through the printing press.

In Zimbabwe, currency stability is no longer taken on trust — it must be earned