It's now official -- Zimbabwe will introduce bond notes end of October 2016. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe confirmed this in its mid-term monetary policy statement. At the same time, the Constitutional Court will hear on Wednesday an application by Joice Mujuru who is contesting the introduction of the notes.
The notes will circulate at par with the US dollar, that is at one bond note to one US dollar. The US dollar proxy will be backed by a $200 million countercyclical facility from African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). A maximum of an equivalent of $200 million in the surrogate currency will be introduced into the system. It is anticipated that bond notes equivalent to about $75 million will be circulating by end of December 2016.
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