DESPITE ever-growing demand for cash, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe says it will not immediately issue new bond notes to add to the US$121 million in value already in circulation

At the beginning of the year, monetary authorities forecast local cash supplies would improve with the start of the tobacco marketing season and on the back of recovering commodity prices on international markets.

But cash hoarding and externalisation are putting paid to that. RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya told The Sunday Mail Business last week that the cash currently in circulation — US$900 million and US$130 million worth of bond notes — was sufficient for local transactions.

“As for now, we have decided not to continue issuing out new bond notes into the market as we have enough for transactional processes … We shall (avail more bond notes) when people have fiscal discipline with the money that is available.

“Since last year March, we have suffered due to some detractors who have bad intentions of hoarding and externalising cash in a bid to destabilise our recovery framework , but we won’t fold hands to leave them to do as they will.

“To deal with such bad characters, we have brought into play (the) Bank Use Promotion Act to ensure and encourage people like traders, wholesalers and other dealers to bank their money. And from this legal instrument, we have taken to court over six firms since the start of the year and we shall continue doing that until the people have discipline,” said Dr Mangudya. Authorities say businesses account for much of the indiscipline plaguing the market as civil servants, while accounting for US$200 million in salaries monthly, have little disposable income.