Feba Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe will with effect from January 18, 2008 have $10 million , $5 million and $1 million notes.

The denominations come into circulation amidst adverse cash shortages which have gripped the country since October 2007. This set of bearer cheques comes hardly 3 weeks after the central bank introduced yet another set of $250 000, $500 000 and $750 000 bearer cheques. This set was meant to replace the old $200 000 note. This was later aborted.

A teacher in December went home with a nett salary of $16 million; under the new denominations, one can easily receive three notes for a month's salary.

In a wide ranging interview on national television on Wednesday night, the central bank governor, Dr. Gideon Gono said, "Our countrywide surveys indicate that high inflation and frequent salary adjustments tend to accelerate the demand for cash, as employers would want to immediately convert their earnings into cash to allow them to buy goods and services ahead of anticipated future price rises."

The $10 million note is less than a British pound which is trading at $12,585,034.01 on the informal market. This is not enough to buy a kilo of beaf. On the official market, the same note is equivalent to approximately GBP170.

Current cash demand stands at between $7.5 trillion and $10 trillion per day.