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Oliver Kazunga  Acting Business Editor
THE newly introduced set of bonded coins will start circulating in the economy today amid high expectations they will ease the problem of change on the market.Since the adoption in February 2009 of a multicurrency system, which is dominated by the United States dollar, Zimbabwe has continued to experience the problem of change resulting in consumers being shortchanged by retailers.

Early this month, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe unveiled $10 million worth of bond coins, which it said would start circulating today.

The introduction of the bonded coins, the monetary authorities said, would go a long way in addressing the challenges of divisibility on the market as well as addressing the store of value qualities of money.

“Definitely the bonded coins will start circulating on Thursday, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve already dispatched the coins to all the banks and retailers  will start collecting them on Thursday (today).

“RBZ through the media has also created public awareness both in urban and rural areas of these coins,” he said.

“We reiterate that the introduction of bonded coins is not an attempt to smuggle the return of local currency but they’re being introduced to address the challenges of divisibility on the market.

“Prices are likely to go down as a result of the bonded coins,” said RBZ spokesperson Alson Mfiri in an interview on Tuesday.

Due to change problems, businesses were at times compelled to sell their products at high prices.

The bond coins were also introduced to buttress the multicurrency system through the provision of change especially for the United States dollar notes which have the smallest denomination in circulation in the country of $1.

Mfiri said the special coins that would circulate in denominations of 1c, 5c, 10c, 20c, and 50c would have their values being at par with the United States cent.

It is envisaged that the 50c coins shall be released into the market in March 2015 due to the prerequisite security features needed in the design and manufacture of the coin.

In his mid-term fiscal policy statement, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa guaranteed the nation that reverting to local currency was not imminent as the economy was yet to sustain itself.

Before the liberalisation of the economy, capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector averaged 10 percent.

Due to the prevailing economic conditions, local industries are still struggling to improve their productivity to competitive levels to shrug off stiff competition from imports.

According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) manufacturing survey, capacity utilisation was presently at 33,3 percent declining from 39,6 percent in 2013.

The bond coins that were minted in South Africa, RBZ Governor John Mangudya said, derive their name from the US$50 million bond coin facility the central bank arranged for the purpose of providing the coins with intrinsic value.

The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe has lauded the government for introducing the  coins.

CCZ executive director Rosemary Siyachitema said consumers should now report retailers who refuse to give them change.