Myanmar issues new bank note

Myanmar will issue next week a 10,000-kyat bank note that will be the country’s highest-denomination currency, the country’s central bank announced Thursday.
State television news broadcast a brief statement from the bank announcing the June 15 release of the new note, worth about $12.
The current highest denomination bank note, 5,000 kyat, was introduced in 2009.
Myanmar hopes to experience an economic boom under the elected government of President Thein Sein, whose reforms have caused Western nations to ease sanctions imposed during the previous repressive military regime.
Its major economic reform was to abandon a two-tier exchange system that kept the official value of the kyat artificially high. Since April 1, its value has been determined by a managed floating exchange rate system.
The immediate effect of introducing a 10,000-kyat note should be practical, because Myanmar is largely a cash economy since it has an underdeveloped financial system. Carrying the equivalent of even just $100 strains even the biggest pants pocket.
“The introduction of the big note will help ease money transactions,” said Thet Lwin Shwe, deputy managing director of the Asia Green Development Bank. “I don’t think it will cause further inflation, though some speculators might exploit the situation temporarily.”
Currency is a sensitive subject in Myanmar, where demonetization of some notes in 1987 sparked protests that turned into vast pro-democracy demonstrations that were quelled with military force.