Preparations for currency reform.

As of 1 April, all shops and other businesses are obliged to indicate their prices in both the existing metical and in its new simplified form in readiness for the introduction of the new family of the currency (the Metical da Nova Familia) later this year. Under the new system 1,000 existing meticais are worth one new metical in a straightforward conversion of a thousand to one. The reform is an attempt to make the currency more manageable after major devaluations in recent years have left Mozambicans buying goods and paying for services in millions of meticais.

The changeover is being overseen by the Central Bank of Mozambique to a total cost of 200 million. Posters and leaflets explaining the changes have been distributed throughout the country and the new banknotes in units of 500, 200, 100, 50, 20 and 10 meticais are due to be issued from 1 July, according to the Mozambique news agency AIM. Thereafter, the two versions of the currency will be legal tender until the old notes and coins have been withdrawn from circulation.

Preparations for the introduction of the new family of the meticais, endorsed by parliament last November, are moving forward despite protests from the opposition party REMANO, which claims the reform is unconstitutional and should be annulled.