Harare - Zimbabwe's gradual recovery from economic collapse was marked on Monday with the return to the country's banking system of one of the rest of the world's most basic business instruments - the cheque.
The Bankers' Association of Zimbabwe said local commercial banks would start with immediate effect to issue their customers with cheque books, for the first time in over a year.
In a reflection of the severe shortage of cash, cheque books would be denominated in US dollars, but personal account holders could issue cheques up to a maximum of only US$200 (R1 600), while companies could write them up to US$500.
Economic chaos brought about by President Robert Mugabe's reckless policies of rigid price controls and printing of vast quantities of banknotes, reached its worst point early this year with inflation hitting 50 billion percent and the national currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, plummeting to a sextillionth of a US dollar. Bank transactions ground to an almost complete halt, except for sporadic issues of the Zimbabwe dollar, while business was conducted nearly exclusively in black market cash deals with the US dollar.
As the value of the Zimbabwe dollar fell drastically over single days, payment by cheque - taking several days to clear - became pointless.
The crisis was halted after the inauguration of a power-sharing government between Mugabe's ZanuPF party and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.
Sapa-DPA/