RBZ quietly tightens screws on parallel market ; exchange rates slowly tumble
Business Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is quietly implementing measures to ease spiralling exchange rates on the parallel market which have begun to slowly tumble.
Investigations by The Humanitarian Post have revealed that most parallel market dealers have begun to witness very tight ZWL liquidity in the markets towards the end of last week .
“We have been experiencing limited ZWL supplies from around last week and the situation seems to be intensifying even in this new week. This has forced us to rescind the premiums of US$1:ZWL 1 600 which we were paying out as of last week to the current rates of US$1:ZWL 1 400 we are now paying ,” said one parallel market dealer at the CopaCabana area.
The situation seemed to be the same across the Central Business District zone with some US$ traders even paying much lesser around US$1 : ZWL1 300.
The interbank rate has gravitated towards US$1:ZW$1 000 amid expectations that if the current trajectory continues , the gap between the two premiums will soon close towards internationally acceptable best standards.
The developments come on the back of plans to unveil the Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) slated for later this month.
“It will be later this month.Ordinarily , the MPS should be presented at the end of January or February.I am very hopeful it will address all the monetary issues in the economy right now,” Monetary Policy Committee member Persistence Gwanyanya revealed this week.
Government has since attributed the depreciation of the exchange rate to speculative practices while some experts believe otherwise.
