Business Reporter
ECONOMIC analyst, Persistence Gwanyanya has slammed ‘pessimistic’ rankings of the ZWG currency by Professor Steve Hanke describing his index as a defiance of logic already confirmed by other reputable institutions.
The remarks come on the back of Hanke’s recent currency watch list claiming the ZWG had depreciated by 26% against the United States dollar over the past year, placing it among the globe’s weakest currencies.
“On this week’s Hanke’s currency watchlist, Zimbabwe’s ZiG comes in as the world’s 7th worst currency. The ZiG has depreciated by 26% against the USD year over year,” he said.
But in response , Gwanyanya criticised Hanke’s findings describing his index as lacking proper clarity to justify ordinary acceptance.
“I don’t know the basis which he (Hanke) is using to rank the ZWG currency, but at the same time I’m also not surprised.Hanke has always been overly pessimistic about whatever we do. Really, I don’t know what he’s seeing which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, who despite having consistently criticized our policies in the past are now concurring to say there is positive growth and stability of the ZWG currency,” he said.
The IMF has since endorsed the introduction of a bullion-backed currency by Zimbabwe describing it as a measured that has helped to end instability that had plagued the economy. The fund expects the country’s economy to register a 6% growth attributed to better harvests, stable exchange rates among other factors.
The World Bank projects Zimbabwe’s economic growth to rebound to 6% in 2025, on the back of a better agricultural season, record-high gold prices anchoring the ZWG, and strong remittance inflows.
Back home , the ZWG has maintained exchange rate stability for more than a year’s long cycle, prompting event the privately run companies to acknowledge the impact in their financial reports.
“I don’t encourage over-reliance on Hanke .Why does he choose to interpret issues in his own way when everyone is seeing it differently. But suffice to say, we should set the record straight about our situation. We have, in my view, progressed significantly, given where we’re coming, and noting that our challenges are structural,” Gwanyanya said.
Hanke said monetary authorities have managed to stabilise the ZWG and are now working towards entrenching its stability going forward.
“You see . I’m not saying that we’ve arrived, we still have a lot of work to do, but we are in the positive direction.
We need to increase the use case, the demand for our local currents, and the government is expected to do more to accelerate the efforts to increase the demand for the local currents. The budget is only coming, I think, next week. We expect measures that would support the local currents,” he added.
