A man holds Zimbabwean dollar bond banknotes for an arranged photograph in Bindura, Zimbabwe on Sunday, July 29, 2018. Zimbabweans will elect a new leader on Monday, eight months after Robert Mugabes forced resignation, and the contest appears too close to call. 
“There is some liquidity in the market, that’s why the surge is there,” Thedias Kasaira, managing director at Imara Edwards, the nation’s oldest brokerage, said by phone. “The exchange rate has been going one way and we are expecting this trend to continue.”
The local currency slumped almost 60% last month alone. While a US dollar is officially worth 3,673 Zimbabwe dollars, the greenback changes hands on the black market at 3,900 to 4,300, according to ZimPriceCheck.com, a website that monitors exchange rates.
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Authorities have tried to curb the currency’s slide, introducing gold coins last year as a store of value and unveiling a bullion-backed digital currency last month. Those assets are more popular with pension fund managers, who are required to include them in their portfolios and who have longer investment timelines than ordinary Zimbabweans, Kasaira said.