Business Reporter
THE ZW$ significantly firmed up by a further 10,2% on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Wholesale Foreign Exchange Auction, signifying the market’s waning possession of the ZW$.
The local currency lost much of its value this year owing to a number of factors which include money supply growth and speculative behavior influenced by the country’s hyperinflationary experiences past.
Fiscal and Monetary authorities have however responded swiftly to deal with challenges through a raft of measures which include the introduction of gold coins, gold backed digital tokens and excess liquidity mop up instruments
Just recently , Treasury allowed the usage of the local currency by allowing the taxman to accept the ZW$ .
Among other measures , a commitment to fund 25% export surrender requirement, maintaining US$ cash withdrawal tax at 2%, adoption of all external loans by RBZ and increasing consumers’ access to basic commodities – by lifting import restrictions on basic goods.
The above measures, combined with other existing instruments to curtail money supply growth have created wider usage of the ZW$, thereby increasing its demand as opposed to just channeling it to the alternative market as had become the norm in the past.
A trading update released at the close of the Wholesale Auction- a platform where banks buy US$ for onward selling to their clients, showed that the floor price went down to US$1: ZW$5 739 from the premium of ZW$6 326 set by the ordinary Auction this week, signifying a significant gain of 10,2 %.
Out of the US$20 million available for uptake, banks only managed to snap up US$3,95 million .
The highest bidding rate reached US$:ZW$ 6 000 and a low of US$1:ZW$5 236.
