DR Congo to release new currency in June

The Central Bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo says that it expects to release the country's long-awaited new currency at the end of June -- more than a year after the overthrow of the late President Mobutu Sese Seko.

The Bank's governor, Jean-Claude Masangu, told the BBC that the delay had been due to lack of confidence in the banking system.

But he said inflation -- which was running at six hundred per cent two years ago -- had already been reduced to about three per cent.

Mr Masangu said the new currency would be called the Congolese franc and would only carry pictures of Congo industry, animals, and cultural objects -- unlike the existing Zaire notes, which still carry the face of the late President Mobutu.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service