Last week the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe made the startling revelation that, at least for the duration of the shutdown, the multicurrency payment system will be back into effect. People would be legally able to pay for goods and services using foreign currency again.

The government has now given legal force to that announcement by gazetting Statutory Instrument 85 of 2020. Using the US dollar, Rand and other currencies was allowed before the government rashly reversed this last year in June. Since then the locally introduced Zimbabwean dollar has been in a free fall. Strangely the Zimbabwean dollar regained some ground after the reintroduciton of the multicurrency system.

Government gazettes SI 85 of 2020 to give legal effect to the use of foreign currency (free funds)for domestic transactions. Nomore monocurrency! pic.twitter.com/DD4v41PTng
— ZimBollar Research Institute (@ZimBollar) March 30, 2020