Mthuli Ncube redollarises

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GOVERNMENT yesterday brought back the United States dollar as legal tender to stem rising inflation and restore confidence in the economy, but critics say the move will lead to more demands for salaries and wages to be pegged in the greenback.

The surprising U-turn was announced by Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube yesterday during a rushed press conference.

Mthuli Ncube also dangled housing loans to the country’s restive civil servants but more than doubled interest rates to 200% to render the incentive moot.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been struggling to revitalise an economy that suffered decades of decline while the financial chaos that characterised the latter years of the late former President Robert Mugabe’s long reign, is again in evidence.

Inflation, at 191,7% is at its highest in years while the local currency has weakened to nearly $700 against the greenback. Price increases have become a daily occurrence, leaving desperate workers unable to cope as wages and salaries fail to keep pace.