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Zimbabwe's central bank said it would start selling gold coins this month as a store of value to tame runaway inflation, which has considerably weakened the local currency.

The central bank governor John Mangudya said in a statement on Monday that the coins will be available for sale from July 25 in local currency, U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies at a price based on the prevailing international price of gold and the cost of production.

The "Mosi-oa-tunya" coin, named after Victoria falls, can be converted into cash and be traded locally and internationally, the central bank said.

The gold coin will contain one troy ounce of gold and will be sold by Fidelity Gold Refinery, Aurex and local banks, it added.

Gold coins are used by investors internationally to hedge against inflation and wars.

Last week, Zimbabwe more than doubled its policy rate to 200% from 80% and outlined plans to make the U.S. dollar legal tender for the next five years to boost confidence.

Soaring inflation in the southern African country has been piling pressure on a population already struggling with shortages and stirring memories of economic chaos years ago under veteran leader Robert Mugabe’s near four-decade rule.

Last week, Zimbabwe more than doubled its policy rate to 200% from 80% and outlined plans to make the U.S. dollar legal tender for the next five years to boost confidence.

Soaring inflation in the southern African country has been piling pressure on a population already struggling with shortages and stirring memories of economic chaos years ago under veteran leader Robert Mugabe’s near four-decade rule.

The company that built India’s digital payments backbone plans to make it cheaper and easier for the nation’s 32 million expatriates to bring their money home.

Indians overseas remitted $87 billion last year, the biggest inflow for any country tracked by the World Bank. The remittances market, where it costs $13 on average to send $200 across borders, is ripe for disruption, according to Ritesh Shukla, chief executive officer of NPCI International Payments Ltd.

“We have displaced cash in India to a large extent and are now looking to repeat the success in cross-border corridors,” said Shukla. “Overseas Indians can use our rails to remit money inwards straightway into their bank accounts, and for the markets where Indians travel frequently, we will build acceptance for our instruments.”

Successful overseas forays by NPCI would give India a home-grown alternative to SWIFT, the Belgium-based cross-border payment system operator, though Shukla stressed that the objective was not to displace existing platforms. About 330 banks and 25 apps -- including

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay and Meta Platform Inc.’s WhatsApp -- share NPCI’s unified payment interface, which has helped make instantaneous digital transactions a $3 trillion market in India.

NPCI is in the process of connecting the UPI platform to systems in other countries to replicate its domestic success. It is negotiating collaborations with governments, fintech companies and service providers around the world, aiming to reduce transaction costs and enable more small-ticket transactions, Shukla said.

Cutting Costs

“This is going to take the payments world by storm,” said Mayank Goyal, CEO of moneyHop, a cross-border banking app that lets users make international remittances through the SWIFT network. The company will seek to integrate UPI rails into the app as it makes cross-border payments easier, Goyal said.

UPI’s linkage with overseas nations will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the countries and lower the cost of cross-border remittances, the Reserve Bank of India said in a report.

The Reserve Bank of India set up NPCI along with the country’s lenders to make retail payments faster, more accessible, and cost-efficient. A user just needs a virtual payment address to instantly transact with vendors and exchange cash between friends or family members.

Petrol and diesel prices will remain steady on July 6, the latest price notification issued by fuel retailers shows, with prices staying unchanged for more than a month after the government on May 21 cut the excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 a litre and on diesel Rs 6 a litre.

The duty cut brought down the petrol price in Delhi by Rs 9.5 and Rs 7 for diesel. Petrol in Delhi costs Rs 96.72 and diesel Rs 89.62 a litre.

In Mumbai, petrol is selling at Rs 111.35 and diesel at Rs 97.28. Petrol and diesel are priced at Rs 102.63 and Rs 94.24 in Chennai, while in Kolkata, petrol is at Rs 106.03 and diesel at Rs 92.76.

Oil marketing companies are incurring a loss of Rs 13.08 a litre on petrol and Rs 24.09 on diesel even as they pass on the excise duty cut to consumers in the country. India meets 80 percent of its fuel needs through imports.

The Centre has proposed to allow primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) to undertake activities like dealership of petroleum products, running PDS shops, and developing hospital and educational institutions, in addition to their regular functions. In this regard, the Ministry of Cooperation has floated a draft 'Model By-laws of PACS' on which it has invited suggestions from the state governments and other stakeholders by July 19.

The existing framework does not allow PACS to diversify in other areas apart from their core business. The draft model by-laws propose that PACS should be allowed to work as Bank Mitras and common service centres (CSCs), provide cold storage and godown facilities, set up PDS shops besides enabling them to work in dairy, fishery, irrigation and green energy sectors.