Zimbabwe Will Attempt to Create Gold-Backed Currency

On Monday Zimbabwe’s government said it plans to introduce a gold-backed currency to replace the country’s nearly worthless dollar. Minister for Finance and Economic Development Mthuli Ncube told reporters in an online press conference that Zimbabwe was making the move to ensure sustained growth. “Going forward, we want to make sure that the growth we have achieved so far — which is very strong — is maintained and even increased,” he said. “We can only do that if we have further stability in the domestic currency. … And the way to do that is perhaps to link the exchange rate to some hard asset such as gold.”