Zimbabwe abandons 1:1 currency peg with the US dollar

Zimbabwe gives up the peg

Zimbabwe has a long history of currency instability and in 2009 introduced the dollar, euro and rand as legal tender after a wild round of hyperinflation.

In 2016, the central bank introduced the quasi-dollar to trade 1:1 with the dollar but it's now abandoning that peg. The move is simply acknowledging what's already happening in the black market, where the quasi currency trades at 3.6-3.8 to the dollar.

I don't think Zimbabwe is going to set off a round of emerging market currency volatility but any time that someone abandons a peg, it leads to some jitters in places that hold pegs, like Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.