Liberia has approved a scheme to print new banknotes in a bid to address long-running cash shortages in the West African nation.
The central bank will now be empowered to print notes worth 48.7
billion Liberian dollars equivalent to 281million dollars and to withdraw
old ones from circulation.
People regularly complain of the difficulty of getting cash in Liberia, in
shortages the central bank has said are due to high demand, few ATMs,
and the circulation of foreign currency.
Liberia has two legal currencies: the Liberian dollar and the US dollar.
The country also imports the vast majority of its food, and wholesale
imports and taxes are payable in US dollars only.
Among other economic woes, the country of 5 million people suffers
periodic fuel shortages and suffers from high inflation.
Liberia is still recovering after back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to
2003, and the West African 2014-16 Ebola pandemic, which killed
4,800 people in the country.
