HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Tuesday that the decision to ban the use of foreign currencies and make the interim currency the sole legal tender was needed to restore normalcy to the struggling economy.

“While the multi-currency regime helped to stabilise the economy, it did not give us control of monetary policy and left us at the mercy of U.S. dollar pricing, which has been a root cause of inflation,” Mnangagwa said in a statement.

He added that the government and central bank were taking steps to ensure the latest currency reforms were successful.