Zimbabwe delays US dollar phase-out until inflation stabilizes, betting on gold-backed ZiG currency

Zimbabwe just blinked. The government has confirmed it won’t rush to ditch the US dollar in favor of its gold-backed ZiG currency, opting instead to wait until inflation is firmly under control and the exchange rate holds steady. The target for making ZiG the sole legal tender is now roughly 2030. The US dollar currently accounts for approximately 85% of all transactions in Zimbabwe, a dominance born not from love of American monetary policy but from deep, generational distrust of anything Harare prints. The ZiG experiment so far The Zimbabwe Gold currency, or ZiG, launched in April 2024 as a gold-backed alternative to the dollar. It entered the world backed by approximately $285 million in assets, a modest foundation for a national currency but a meaningful signal that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was trying something different this time around. Annual inflation fell to 3.2% in July 2026, down from 4.7% in June. For context, Zimbabwe’s inflation was running at triple-digit levels in previous years. The RBZ has also rolled out redesigned higher-denomination ZiG banknotes, which entered circulation in April 2026. New denominations are a practical requirement for a currency that the ...