Dollarization: the case of Zimbabwe.

• Author: Noko, Joseph
• Position: Report

This article investigates the recent monetary experience of Zimbabwe with dollarization. It shows how dollarization has allowed Zimbabwe to quash hyperinflation, restore stability, increase budgetary discipline, and reestablish monetary credibility. Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary past and the stabilization measures taken by the government are outlined, and the consequences defined. Problems arising from a lack of financial integration, an error in the choice of currency to dollarize under, and the inability of the government to enter into a formal dollarization agreement are discussed.

Choice in Currency

In his 1976 classic Choice in Currency, F. A. Hayek argued that "the pressure for more and cheaper money" led governments to monopolize the issuance of money and made inflation inevitable. He asked, "Why should we not let people choose freely what money they want to use?"

The purpose of this article is to investigate Zimbabwe's experience with choice in currency, given its recent history of hyperinflation and

its program of dollarization undertaken in 2008. (1) We begin by setting the scene and describing the main events of Zimbabwe's recent history. The actions taken by the inclusive government to end the tyranny of hyperinflation are outlined, and the consequences of the decision to 'allow choice in currency are analyzed. The relevant question is: Has choice in currency or what the authorities have called "a multicurrency regime" stopped hyperinflation and helped protect the value of money? In a word, has dollarization worked?

The Monetary System Prior to the Multicurrency Regime

After the breakup of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and consequently the termination of the currency union between Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi), the Parliament of Southern Rhodesia enacted the "Reserve Bank of Rhodesia Act" on November 16, 1964, creating a central bank, the Reserve Bank of Rhodesia, and replacing the Central African pound with the Rhodesian pound. Upon achievement of de jure independence--that is, independence recognized by the international community, including the United Kingdom--and the attainment of majority rule, on April 18, 1980, the Reserve Bank of Rhodesia became what is today known as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, headquartered in the capital city, Harare.

The country was a part of the sterling area from its inception in 1931 up until Rhodesia's expulsion on November 11, 1965, when the government of Prime Minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom, whereupon the Rhodesian pound was replaced with the Rhodesian dollar.

Zimbabwe has a history of exchange controls which extends, by some accounts, to 1947 (Bond 1996). On February 23, 1961, during the latter days of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, exchange controls were extended to the sterling area and this arrangement was carried over to the successor states of the Federation when it dissolved. In 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar was tied to a flexible basket of currencies in which the Zimbabwe dollar had a crawling band of +/-2 percent of the dollar. It was valued at US$1.47 at the time of de jure independence. In 1994, the flexible basket was replaced with an independent float, but from 1999 onward, the Zimbabwe dollar was pegged to the U.S. dollar until the Zimbabwe dollar was taken out of circulation in 2009. (2) On November 30, 2002, more exchange controls were put in place when the government closed 'all bureaux de change, limiting licenses to deal in foreign exchange to banks, further affecting the convertibility of the Zimbabwe dollar.

The Crisis

Like a Siren whose sweet song seduces ships' captains, luring them and their charges to oblivion, the mania for printing money brought Zimbabwe's economy within an inch of annihilation. Confounding money with wealth, ravaging incomes, destroying the basis of savings, enshrining the god of consumption, ruining creditors, impoverishing many, enriching a few, undermining exchange with other nations, fostering uncertainty, causing millions to flee, (3) and smothering productive forces, the government of Zimbabwe achieved, through the debauching of the currency, a feat of frightful devastation.

With two key events, the ship yawed off course:

1. The resolution of the government to enter into the Second Congo War in 1998 on the side of Laurent Kabila, in his rebellion against the dictator Mobuto Sese Seko in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Without having budgeted for the war, without the surplus to finance such a war, without the will to raise taxes sufficiently to meet the costs of the war, and without the intention to make known the commercial arrangements made by the military with Kabila, or the final costs of the four-year war, the government began its "voyage to perdition.

2. The land expropriation program of 2000 when government-sponsored veterans of the war for Zimbabwe's independence invaded nearly all 4,500 white-owned commercial farms and forcibly appropriated them for war veterans and the kakistocracy of politicians and the security establishment (Richardson 2005). The commercial farms were broken tap, their productivity plunged by half between 2000 and 2007, the expertise of the white farmers was lost to foreign nations, and the specter of forcible expropriations haunted all prospective investors causing foreign direct investment to whittle down from US$400 million in 1998 to US$30 million in 2007. Shortly after the land expropriations began, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union instituted sanctions. The Bush administration enacted the "Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act" in 2001, linking financial support with democratic reforms and soon after, the International Monetary Fund withdrew support alongside the European Union (Chengu 2009).

   The second point deserves some clarification as to its impact on inflation. Given the rapid deterioration in foreign aid and Financial support, as a consequence of the blatant violation of property rights, the government felt obliged, at pain of admitting defeat, to increase its expenditure to include financial support for its land redistribution program mad to engage in inflationary policies to abate the storm of discontent from its citizens. Through the "Farina Mechanization Program," among other such initiatives, the government and the Reserve Bank offered "free and concessional facilities" to the "new farmers" (Biti 2009b). Importantly, no financial institution in Zimbabwe recognized this forcible transference of land ownership, making it well neigh impossible for new farmers to access credit. Figure 1 demonstrates the deepening entrenchment of the state in the agricultural sector.

   By 2003, the Zimbabwe dollar had deteriorated to the point where the cost of issuing it in the form of regular notes and coins was greater than the face value, resulting in the government issuing the Zimbabwe dollar by way of time-limited "bearer checks" on lower-quality paper, with very high denominations. The bearer checks were to circulate up to 2009 when the government took the dollar out of circulation. In 2003, changes to monetary policy and alleged risky practices by certain banks resulted in a liquidity crunch that affected 40 percent of the banking system and cost the system approximately Z82 trillion (US$350 million) and forced the Reserve Bank to close several locally owned banks (Kwesa 2009). This experience is in line with the literature of system-wide bank runs and payments problems in central bank regimes (Bogetic 2000).

   [FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

   In an effort to sanitize the land expropriation program, the government issued 99-year leases in November 2006, but reserved the right to cancel the lease if a farm was unproductive (Ploch 2009). This provision preserved the reluctance of financial institutions to accept the new leases as collateral. Large tracts of farmland remain unfarmed as a result of inefficiencies and a dearth of credit for new farmers, which created food shortages, stimulated demand for foreign food products, and caused speculation in prices. To combat this, the government introduced a price freeze from March 1 to June 30, 2007, which had the predictable effect of further decreasing agricultural production, with seed and fertilizer producers keeping their produce off the market.

   Consequently, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's powers grew to include purchase of farm implements and coordination of input, financial, and technical support programs for new farmers. This policy agenda was hailed as a heterodox approach to economics that would prove superior to the West. The increased government expenditure was founded upon high taxes and the printing of money by an all-too-eager Reserve Bank. Taxes can only go so high, and the ravenous appetite of government for agricultural expenditures and defense spending would eventually overwhelm the counteracting influence of taxes. The increased role of the Reserve Bank in the economy amounted to a policy coup d'etat in which the Reserve Bank arrogated the powers of the Finance Ministry.

   The current finance minister, Tendai Biti, noted that "high inflation was primarily driven by high money supply growth on account of expansionary quasi-fiscal activities by the Central Bank. This pro-inflationary macroeconomic policy was compounded by speculative activities in financial markets and the underlying severe supply constraints in the economy" (Biti 2009b). Figure 2 shows the sharp increase in the broad money supply (M3) along with quasi-fiscal disbursements in 2007-2008, when price inflation exploded.

   Under this new regime of concentrated economic power, the Reserve Bank increased currency in circulation at escalating rates, with the period from January 2005 to May 2007 noteworthy for exceeding the peak of the efforts of the German central bank's printing presses in January 1921...