Great news!! Not before time. Let's hope they can keep tjose zeros off.

If we lived in an ideal world that would indeed be ideal, but unfortunately with the inflation at its current levels all the lopping off of zeroes will do is keep the actual figures manageable for a while.

The only way that they will stay off is if Zimbabwe can start getting back up onto its feet ..... and the best way to achieve this realistically is to bring the skills base back into the country, something that is not going to happen while they feel there is a clear and present threat to their lives.

I reckon its about time to drop the past and the racism from both sides and look forward, get a united Zimbabwe of all colours, religions, etc moving forward together. Rhodesia is dead and buried, lets not make the same mistake with Zimbabwe ..... let the wounds heal instead of picking the scabs off time and time again ..... only then will Zimbabwe be able to heal as a country.

Bets on how long till a 100,000 note is required? I give it a month.

Dont want to lose my money...will agree with you! LOL

The Governor ought to apologize to Zimbabweans for unnecessary expenses printing new billion-notes and reviewing his action less than two weeks afterwards. Is that serious?

Unless it was dictated by tyrant Mugabe who might have been dreaming that putting billion denominated notes into the pockets of people would have made Zimbabweans happy!! Otherwise, I cannot understand that the Governor was not aware that normal type calculators do not handle figures beyond the sum 99,999,999!!

How irresponsible? But has this not been the the trend during the last decade of Mugabe's reign?

Way to go Gono...!!! that is the way to do it...just sit around till the zeros start to induce hyper dyslexia and go in with the rubber and let's start all over again...you really could not make it up...not in a trillion zimdollar years..you just could not make it up! I tell you what though...the only zeros that need slashing are the zeros running the country into the ground!!!!!

eh.eh ? Gideon is doing the best that he can.He is in goverMUNT. He werks with money,in a bunana state, so do i.I sell bananas.For cash.Thatis why i am saying,my only advice is Karefull Kaffall !

Seriously though I really cant see this working. Reading the article it states as of 01 August 10 billion zimdollars will be 1 zimdollar. so far so...ummm...good...they gleefully hope. problem is read a little further down and you discover a National Railways of Zimbabwe worker is on the princley monthly wage of 60 billion zimdollars. so..our poor chappie as of 01 August is going to be on take home pay of...you got it!!! 6 zim dollars!!!! Another well thought out zanupf policy...just like the land redistributed to cronies that has crippled the country to unchartered levels since man made govt began!!!!

Imagine the average "povu" as from the 1st August receiving 6 Zim Dollars instead of 60 Billion per month ! He's not going to see the funny side of it. Instead he may start throwing a few rocks because now he will definitely know what his money isn't worth ! Pamberi ne.......aagh !

It doesn't matter if an employee takes home £60bn dollars or $6 if the value is the same thing. That's the whole point of taking off the zeros. The holder can buy no more or less either $60bn than they can with $6.

As for the idea that Governor of the RBZ should apologise, I would say his hand was forced last week when the British along with their EU allies and the US increased economic sanctions on Zimbabwe companies. Some of Zimbabwe's largest businesses, exporters and foreign currency earners have been sanctioned. Zimbabwe is in dire need of foreign currency to encourage stability. Last weeks sanctions are deliberately designed to stifle economic recovery.

The Governor had no choice but to respond.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080727/wl_africa_afp/zimbabwepoliticseconomyu ssanctions_080727124542

Well... lets see. Maybe if there were free and fair elections then there wouldnt be a need for sanctions now would there...

And you say the current inflationary problems are now a result of what happened last week? Come on... do you really expect us to believe that? Are you saying that if the British etc hadnt put sanctions on Zim last week there would be no need to get rid of all those zeros? In the words of John McEnroe, you cannot be serious!

The funny thing is, all those crappy coins that were worth nothing last week can not be used. So I would throw away any $1 billion notes, I would wait about a year till they can be used again. Seems like currency is just pointless.

I didn't say the current problems are the result of last weeks sanctions; I suggested last weeks sanctions added to the current problems. Do try to keep up.

But you are saying that these sanctions last week forced Gono to drop the zeros, hence my question: are you saying that if the British etc hadnt put sanctions on Zim last week there would be no need to get rid of all those zeros? Still waiting for you to answer it...

awt, I was responding to an early post by prem saying, "The Governor ought to apologize to Zimbabweans for unnecessary expenses printing new billion-notes and reviewing his action less than two weeks afterwards. Is that serious"?

I'm not saying the zero didn't need getting rid of, indeed, before now I've argued that the zero should be dealt with. My argument was a specific response about the timing just after a new billion dollar note was issued, the increased sanctions last week forced the governor's hand.

This is a welcome move for ordinary Zimbabweans.. You folks cannot imagine how much it takes to carry cash of billion dollars or even a trillion around to buy a simple little thing so this is a convenience act although it doesn't take away inflation. The evil sanctions imposed are surely illegal because they are not targetted at Mugabe but for ordinary citizens which prove that the west cares less about nobody.They love to see Mugabe and even the whole country sink.

Another brainwashed person to feel sorry for. And another person blaming the west for Zimbabweans problems. Is there no end to these people? So the sanctions from Britain targeting travel by zim ministers, how does this affect the Zim economy? If you are talking about the IMF and world bank not lending zim money, then you also have to blame China and South Africa as these countries have also refused to lend Zim money.

And if the west didnt care for the average zimbabwean, why was there such an uproar over the elections? If the west didnt care about Mugabe beating and murdering his own people to keep power, then they would have said nothing. Why do you think these sanctions have been put on Zimbabwean ministers? Because they beat and murder their own people to stay in power. I think you need to point a finger straight at Mugabe before you point a finger at the west.

the country was sinking before the targetted sanctions were imposed mate..you must have been hibernating in your cave to have missed it!!

selector...in trying to defend the failing policies of your zero mugabe this is what you said: It doesn't matter if an employee takes home £60bn dollars or $6 if the value is the same thing. That's the whole point of taking off the zeros. So???? You have lost me there...the whole point of taking off the zeros is what then??? I thought it was to make life easier..put it this way..a kg of beef is 1.4 trillion...so in the new currency a kg of beef is going to be 14 dollars..the railway worker earns 6 dollars a month..which means he needs to go in and ask for a raise to bring his earnings to a level which will enable him to at least feed himself for the month..not just an afternoon..and in so doing the employer being pressed into raising the wages will in turn have to cover this increased cost by raising his prices and before we know it Gono will be handing out bottles of tippex again!! Face it..your lot have run out of ideas!!!! Stop blaming the brits!!! the economy has been under your control for the past 25 years and the decisions made were made by your lot..NOT the british!!

turnex

'Stop blaming the brits!!! the economy has been under your control for the past 25 years and the decisions made were made by your lot..NOT the british'!!

As I understand it, the ask is for the Brits to butt out. The UK is the country that relentlessly tries to demonise Mugabe on the international stage, including at the EU and the UN and, one suspects, it uses its "special relationship" with the US to get that country, which has no specific axe to grind with Mugabe or Zimbabwe, to also demonise Mugabe. Both Mugabe and Mbeki have asked Britain to simply go away. I wish they would and as soon as they do butt out they'll stopped being blamed for stirring up animosity and resentment.

selector The UK is the country that relentlessly tries to demonise Mugabe on the international stage,

Are you for real??? Mugabe, by his OWN actions, demonises himself by murdering his opponents and any who disagree with him. The west just highlight this that is all. I can never get it with you people. In one breath you berate the west because it has stood by watching this or that dectator murdering his people..and in the very next you are angry that the west has something to say about this or that dictator murdering his people?? Which is it??

Turnex, which is it? Butt out.

Gideon Gono, as one of Mugabe's stooges does not have a mind of his own. He too is told by Mugabe when to sit and when to stand. Mugabe is truly responsible for all the failures of Zimbabwe by the way he mishandled the land redistribution and his dipping into the country's money coffers. Agriculture was always the mainstay of Zimbabwe and you cannot give the land to people who have no clue about farming and expect to succeed. Mugabe gave the nice farms close to the city to his political allies, then the nice farms far from the city Mugabe gave to those politicians he had to appease but were not his best beloved. The productive tucked-away farms were given away to 'worthy' war veterans - to men and a few women who showed themselves to be 'brave liberation strugglers'. Lastly the farms that lay in God-forsaken areas dangerously close to minefields near the Mozambique border, with sporadic rains, as hot as hell, with unreliable soil and a history of bad luck, he gave to his enemies whom he pretended to appease. Where is the ordinary Zimbabwean in this equation? To make matters worse, Mugabe began the beatings and killings of thousands including white farmers whose Lancaster House agreement installment funds worth millions of British pounds he misappropriated. To this day Mugabe is mum about that money. Is it any wonder the British stopped those installments - no accountability and funds were not used by Mugabe to compensate those farmers for the land. The IMF bank too is not stupid to lend money to a government gone mad with no fiscal responsibility and whose country is stone broke of his own doing. So to try and put Mugabe's brain together sanctions were placed on his military arms purchases, his travels,and his fat bank accounts and other assets frozen. That is the extent of the sanctions - on Mugabe only. With no money to even afford fertilizer how on earth can those few stranglers try to farm? ALL the failure of Zimbabwe is due Mugabe. During the Rhodesian regime severe sanctions were placed not only on Ian Smith but embargoes on the country but there was no mass exodus of people because jobs were plenty and even though wages were low, food was plentiful and affordable, the currency was strong and the country feeding other African countries-an envy to most. Alas Ian Smith's racial policies gave Mugabe the chance to destroy a beautiful country.

kj..you wrote: Gideon Gono, as one of Mugabe's stooges does not have a mind of his own. He too is told by Mugabe when to sit and when to stand: I laughed so much..that was really funny...keep up the posts..someday it might just sink in the heads of the bozos whose iq matches their shoe size!!

Thanks Turnex. These warp-minded, backward and uncivilized Mugabe goons have eyes but are blind. All this pally pally stuff with the Chinese, what will happen when one day their relationship goes sour? They will wake up to find their country so heavily mortgaged and indebted to the Chinese through Mugabe, that the people will be the ones being whipped and harnessed in the fields instead of cattle. The Chinese are a ruthless people that only want to make money for the growth of their own country and couldn't care less about anyone else. Next year South Africa will change hands and Mbeki out, and after Mugabe was so arrogant and spiteful towards the Zambian president Mr Mwanawasa whilst in hospital, and relations with Botswana somewhat sour, Mugabe will have no choice but put his tail between his legs because he will have a problem of goods coming in or out as he is land- locked. The port of Mozambique alone? How much can they handle?

The Chinese have brought 300,000,000 (that's three hundred million) people out of poverty with their increased wealth over the last three decades. Economic empowerment is real freedom of choice as opposed to the lip service that has seen the rich/poor divide widen in the West.

Over the last three decades, poverty has increased in the UK and America, despite unprecedented ecnomic growth over the same period, whilst 300,000,000 people have been raised out of poverty in China since that country got rid of the Gang of Four in the mid-1970s.

The figures speak for themselves.

Selector, and how many billions and billions of dollars did the Chinese get for that exercise? Tell us it was free aid to the people and we will applaud them. You are right about economic empowerment and freedom of choice. Do you have any of that in your Country?