Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe - The printing machine

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or RBZ has it is affectionately known by its employees has been singled out by President of Zimbabwe opponents like Morgan Tsvangirai for single-handedly destroying the Zimbabwe economy.

The RBZ governor Gideon Gono  is on record for admitting to unstoppable printing of the Zimbabwe dollar currency. Under his stewardship of the central bank did inflation skyrocket into trillions of dollars. The bank is also accused of bank rolling Zanupf political campaign expenses through excessive money printing.

This cartoon  above from Zimdaily shows government senior officers and ministers lining-up to get free money from the RBZ depicted by the ATM

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe over the last 10 years from year 2000 to about 2010 got into overdrive concerning involvement in non-core business such as loans to farmers and purchase of farm implements on behalf of the Zimbabwe government. The RBZ even bought cars and televisions, computes and other benefits for judges. It also participated in the invigilation and marking of exams at a national scale.


It is strongly believed by many analysts that the reserve bank for years in a row ran the entire government and broad economics of the country. The central bank is known to have left the printing machine on full throttle with fresh clean  un-circulated notes finding their way onto the parallel market to purchase foreign exchange from the dark corners of Harare the capital of Zimbabwe on behalf of senior government officials and politicians.

During this same period painful withdrawal limits were imposed on bank accounts by the central bank to an extent of people withdrawing an equivalent of US$5.00 per day due to inflation hardly enough to meet day to day personal needs.

Gideon Gono the reserve bank governor oversaw the slashing of zeros from the Zimbabwe currency thrice before the final introduction of the multi-currency system in 2009 due to unsustainable levels of inflation in Zimbabwe

This cartoon  above also from Zimdaily shows the man Gono just behind the reserve bank building desperately looking for once thrown away keys to stop the printing press.

The following are some of Zimbabwe's currency notes introduced by the Reserve Bank between 2000 and 2009.

The $1.00 note introduced in 2008 on slashing of 10 zeros from the Zimbabwe currency. It was intended to help with change. Within a month it was no-longer useful due to a ferocious return of inflation.

$5.00 introduced after the slashing of the zeros.Printed on highly quality paper with all security features.

The $5.00 note introduced on the third and final round of zero slashing from the national currency. Its quality was way poorer as it was printed on sub-standard paper unlike the $5.00 that was printed in Germany.

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