Harare (AFP)

Zimbabwe announced Monday it has banned current transactions in foreign currencies, umpteenth attempt to dry the black market currency and avoid the return of hyperinflation that ravaged the economy of the country.

Since 2009, it was possible to pay its expenses (supermarket, gasoline, hospital bills ...) in foreign currency, especially in US dollars much appreciated by traders, in this country of southern Africa.

The Zimbabwean authorities' announcement on Monday to put an end to this provision - an already controversial decision - brings the country a little closer to the reestablishment of a true national currency, repeatedly promised by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"As of June 24, the British pound, the US dollar, the South African rand (...) or any other currency can no longer serve as a currency with the Zimbabwean dollar for any transaction," announced the Central Bank. .

"As a result, the Zimbabwean dollar remains the only currency allowed for transactions in Zimbabwe," she added.

In power since late 2017 and the resignation of Robert Mugabe, absolute master for thirty-seven years, Mr. Mnangagwa promises to revive the economy, so far without result.

Lack of liquidity, falling currency, high inflation, endemic unemployment, his country has been stuck for two decades in an endless crisis.

In 2009, the country was forced to abandon its currency, totally devalued by a dizzying hyperinflation of several hundred million percent, in favor of the US dollar and the South African rand in particular.

But the precious greenbacks have become increasingly rare, to the point of strangling the economy. In 2016, the government introduced "bonds notes", government bonds of the same value as the greenbacks.

Again, the operation failed. The value of "hops notes" has collapsed, inflation has picked up, widened deficits and led to the return of shortages of commodities such as oil, sugar or medicines and, for two months, cuts in prices. widespread electricity.

- Under control -

In January, the multiplication by more than two fuel prices caused riots in the country, severely repressed - at least 17 deaths and hundreds of arrests, according to civil society - by the police and the army.

In February, Mnangagwa decided to float the value of his "bond notes", renamed RTGS dollars (real time gross settlement) or "Zimbabwean dollars", with the hope of drying up the black market. Again in vain.

The value of "Zimbabwean dollars", which are not recognized on the foreign exchange market, continues to fall and, according to the statistical agency (ZimStats), the rise in prices (97.85%) has even touched the 100% annual rate in May.

On Monday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube justified his decision to ban foreign exchange by the need to "bring the situation under control".

Officials "are not paid in dollars (...), they can not afford to pay for their drugs or services in hospitals and clinics that require US dollars", took Mr. Ncube as an example before the press.

His decision was welcomed by the opposition.

"It will only exacerbate the chaos," said opposition Senator David Coltard. "The market has softened for lack of confidence in the RTGS dollar," he said on Twitter, "you can not force anyone to love a currency."

The reaction of the markets has hardly been more enthusiastic.

"The measure can prove disastrous if the system of acquisition of currencies by the interbank market does not work", warned the AFP the independent economist Gift Mugano, "exchange rates (currencies) will rise and inflation too. "

According to his colleague Jee-A van der Linde of the South African firm African Economics, the introduction of a new local currency will not change anything in a country whose economic fundamentals remain more than unsettling.

"It requires trust," he told Bloomberg, "people will not believe this new currency and it will further increase the black market."

? 2019 AFP