Attempts to tame Zimbabwe’s multimillion percent inflation rate is beginning to have a negative effect on banks in that country. The commercial banks in the country yesterday turned customers away after running out of cash. A bank manager, who spoke on anonymity, told IRIN in Harare that they had not received the new notes that had been issued by the Reserves Bank. “Our only problem is that the maximum withdrawals have been increased to Z$2 trillion ($200) per customer per day, and as a result we have run out of cash. The Reserve Bank has not given us any additional supplies of money,” the bank manager lamented. Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, sees the introduction of a new currency that will lop off 10 zeroes from the old currency, effectively revaluing Z$10 billion to one Zimbabwe dollar, as the solution to the country's hyperinflation. On 4 August, $1 was equivalent to Z$75 on the parallel currency exchange market. The largest denomination of the new currency is Z$500 ($6.60). The new attempt to curb inflation - estimated at 2.2 million percent by the government and at more than 15 million percent by independent economists - was announced in Gono's half-yearly monetary policy statement on 30 July and implemented two days later. He said the new notes, along with the bearer and agro cheques being used as currency, would remain in circulation until 31 December. He recommended that wage and salary increments be frozen for six months. "The six-month moratorium is suggested here as the most credible foundation and seed for the retransformation of market trends and micro-level pricing behaviour into stable and predictable modes," he said. President Robert Mugabe, 84, who attended the monetary policy presentation, threatened to impose a state of emergency if the business sector continued to adjust its prices in line with the hyperinflationary environment. "We have the power to invoke further measures, but we do not want to use the emergency rules. Emergency measures can be taken but we do not want that yet. We can do that to deter unjustified price increases," said the president, who has ruled for 28 years. Source: IRIN