(Bloomberg) -- Guinea’s central bank is removing a series of 10,000 Guinean franc notes from circulation and replacing them with new designs as it seeks to root out counterfeits and its pressures on price growth.

The demonetization exercise, which started in May last year will be completed in June to mark the end of the series of high-value banknotes introduced into circulation in 2012, Governor Karamo Kaba said in a speech in the capital, Conakry, on Wednesday.

“The fight against counterfeiting will continue with the aim of strengthening banknotes security,” Kaba said. “Combined with the central bank’s policies to strengthen foreign-exchange reserves, this will help us to maintain inflation rate in single digit by the end of the year.”

Guinea’s inflation was unchanged at 8.6% in December, from a month earlier, in line with a single digit target by the central bank. Kaba expects the economy to grow 6.1% this year from 5.3% in 2022 if price growth remains anchored.

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