Written by Umamah Bakharia

Zimbabwe is set to introduce gold coins that will enable investors to store value weighing the country as inflation spirals out of control and the local currency continues to rapidly devalue against major currencies. The move comes after inflation for June jumped to 191.6% from 132% in May.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Zimbabwean economist, Vince Masewa says the coins won’t affect the lone man on the street.

“It is like a Kruger rand where investors will invest in that assets in order to store value,” says Masewa. This comes after the majority of Zimbabweans have not been trusting the Zimbabwean dollar value.

He adds that Zimbabweans are no longer banking money and rather opting to keep cash at hand as they have no confidence that they can retain their money from the bank. “[The gold coin] wont be used as a transitional thing, you will use it for saving your money over time,” says Musewa.

With Zimbabwe’s rapid inflation rise, economists are weighing its cases of it on dual currencies as Zimbabwe operates using either the Zim dollar or the US dollar.

“The other thing is politics, if we don’t get our politics right in the international  peace, people will always to try to value our currency less and that is what has been driving inflation also,” says Musewa.

The gold coins’ value has not been determined yet as the market awaits its arrival.