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Cash crisis forces shutdown of Zimbabwean ATMs

The country is so short on hard currency that in order to initiate a cash withdrawal, bank customers must queue up and wait for someone else to make a cash deposit.

April 15, 2016

A cash shortage in Zimbabwe has caused that nation's banks to suspend operation of most of their ATMs. The few machines that remain online are imposing stricter cash withdrawal limits of $500 per day or less.

Additionally, Zimbabwe's real-time ZimSwitch service, which allows depositors to withdraw cash from other banks besides their own, has been switched off, according to a report by AllAfrica.

The current cash crunch arises from the latest in a series of self-induced economic crises to hit the Zimbabwean economy, including the redistribution of privately owned farmland and industry, hardline mining policies and a depressed tourism sector due to the country's switch to the U.S. dollar as a means to slow spiraling hyperinflation.

However, a trade imbalance is sending that cash out of Zimbabwe, and the country is no longer able to replace it easily by printing more of its own currency.

All Africa reported "long winding queues have … at most banks as depositors wait patiently to get cash from their banks, which often rely on deposits from other customers for cash withdrawals by others."