Zimbabwean bond notes were a form of
banknote
A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...
in circulation in
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
. Released by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the notes were stated to not be a currency in itself but rather
legal tender
Legal tender is a form of money that Standard of deferred payment, courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment in court for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything ...
near money pegged equally against the
U.S. dollar. In 2014, prior to the release of bond notes, a series of
bond coins entered circulation.
History
In November 2016, backed by a loan from the
African Export-Import Bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe began issuing $2 bond notes. Two months later, worth of new five-dollar bond notes were also released. Further plans for and bond notes were ruled out by the Reserve Bank's governor John Mangudya. However, in 2020, $10 bond and $20 were introduced. In 2022, the $50 and $100 bond notes were introduced.
The notes were not generally accepted by the Zimbabwean people,
so the government tried expanding the electronic money supply and issuing Treasury bills instead.
The bond notes were still in circulation in 2018, although former Finance Minister
Tendai Biti
Tendai Laxton Biti (born 6 August 1966) is a Zimbabwean politician who served as List of Finance Ministers of Zimbabwe, Finance Minister of Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He is the second Vice President of Movement for Democratic Change (prior to ...
said that they should be demonetised, as they were being subject to
arbitrage
Arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more marketsstriking a combination of matching deals to capitalize on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which th ...
.
In the campaigning for the 2018 elections, the bond notes became a political issue, with the MDC Alliance calling for their replacement with 'real cash'.
Despite the notes being notionally pegged to the US dollar, their value, like the former
Zimbabwean dollar, is collapsing, with everyday transactions using a rate of $3 bond notes to in January 2019 and over $90 bond notes to as of November 2020. As of August 2022, the conversion rate is $361.9 bond notes to US$1.
Issued notes
Bond notes and the RTGS dollar
In February 2019, the RBZ Governor announced that the bond notes would be part of the "values" that make up the new currency to be added into the Zimbabwean market, the
RTGS dollar along with the
bond coins and electronic balances.
See also
*
Zimbabwean bond coins
*
Zimbabwean bonds
*
Zimbabwean dollar
*
RTGS dollar
References
External links
*
Zimbabwean ZiG
{{Authority control
Currencies introduced in 2016
Banknotes of Africa
Currencies of Zimbabwe
Dollar
Currencies of Africa