Zimbabweans are again facing acute cash shortages and long lines at banks, a development economists attribute to unremitting hyperinflation combined with last month's decision by a German printing firm to cut off the central bank's supply of banknote paper.
Sources in Harare reported long lines at banks and other financial institutions with few automated teller machines in service.
In Bulawayo most people are said to be relying on the parallel market to obtain cash – only companies and civil servants are turning to banks to meet their needs.
Sources in Mutare, in eastern Zimbabwe, said most consumers are trading in and out of hard currencies like the dollar to preserve the value of their money against roaring inflation.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze, director of the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that hyperinflation has combined with the loss of the paper source to create a cash crunch.Mutare resident Brendan Dhliwayo explained how he is coping with the shortages.
More reports from VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe...
