Business Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) has praised the country’s tight monetary policy for helping restore macroeconomic stability and improve exchange rates.
In its submission to the 2026 Monetary Policy Statement, the ZNCC highlighted the positive outcomes of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s monetary policy framework, which has led to increased stability, despite the challenges posed by high interest rates limiting borrowing for productive purposes.
The chamber also pointed to a significant drop in headline inflation and predicted that with inflation expected to stay below 10 percent in 2026, there would be room for a gradual reduction in interest rates.
ZNCC expressed strong support for the government’s commitment to maintaining monetary discipline, avoiding policy reversals, and coordinating actions to bolster public and market confidence.
The Reserve Bank has previously emphasized that it will not reduce interest rates prematurely. It has stressed the importance of ensuring that the decrease in inflation is sustainable to avoid reversing the stability achieved since the reintroduction of the foreign currency and gold-backed local currency in April 2024. Despite this, the central bank’s policy has been effective in curbing inflation and stabilizing the currency.
Annual inflation dropped from 95.7 percent in April of the previous year to 12 percent by the end of 2025, and further declined to 4.1 percent in January of this year. However, the ZNCC emphasized that strong economic growth would require lower interest rates to stimulate activity. “Slower growth calls for lower rates to boost economic activity,” they added, suggesting that any rate cuts should be based on inflation data to avoid distorting the real cost of borrowing.
The ZNCC also commended the Ministry of Finance for its fiscal discipline, particularly in relation to the projected 2026 budget deficit of just 0.2 percent of GDP. The chamber argued that such a modest deficit would help reduce pressure on domestic credit markets.
Furthermore, the business lobby group welcomed the government’s plan to convert part of the domestic debt into long-term securities, but emphasized that transparency and clarity would be crucial for maintaining public trust. “If the government fails to manage debt arrears transparently, it may have no choice but to issue treasury bills or rely on central bank overdrafts,” the ZNCC warned.
The ZNCC also noted the growing use of the ZiG currency in transactions, attributing this success to the macroeconomic stability achieved through the tight monetary policy rather than administrative shortcuts.
