We’re open for business, president said – then Zimbabwe shut

EMMERSON Mnangagwa has stymied Zimbabwe’s economy, five years after he declared the country “Open for business.”

Flanked by his finance minister and central bank governor, the president announced in a May 7 televised speech that banks had been banned from lending in a bid to stem the precipitous decline of the local currency. The order threatens to dissipate what little confidence there is in an economy that’s been in turmoil for more than two decades.

It’s the latest in a series of economic missteps that’s seen Zimbabwe ride a roller coaster of hyperinflation and periodic shortages of food and fuel. At the heart of the economic malaise is a currency policy that’s retarded growth, gouged businesses and cost citizens their savings.

“They are desperate to have their own national currency even though they have nothing of value to underpin it,” said Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the