Business Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) weekly gold backed digital tokens have gone a long way in cleansing bad money in the economy which has traditionally flowed into the parallel market prompting severe exchange rate depreciation.
Zimbabwe recently turned to digital money to help ease soaring demand for US dollars in its economy as the value of the local currency plunged.
A number of liquidity mop up instruments have been launched in a bid to arrest spiralling inflation in the economy which include; Negotiable Certificates of Deposit (NCD) , gold coins and more recently bullion backed digital coins among others.
In a statement this week ,the central bank said a huge chunk of ZWL was wiped out.
“The public is hereby notified of the results of the RBZ digital tokens Issue 7/2023 held on Thursday June 22 2023.The Bank received 28 applications valued at ZW$3,5 billion in purchase gold backed digital tokens,” said the bank.
Since the inception of the tokens , excess ZW$ which have been used to finance parallel market activities and this initiative coupled with other mechanisms implemented earlier are expected to go a long way in stabilising the exchange rate.
Last week , the bank reported that out of 35 applications received ZW$3 billion was mopped up and US$4 199, 98 through the instruments.
“Applications under the eighth issue of the RBZ gold backed digital tokens should be submitted through the banks during the course of the week for settlement and issuance on Thursday 29 2023,” the central bank said.
On average , around ZWL3 billion is being wiped out weekly amid expectations that the initiatives will starve unscrupulous activities in the alternative market.
The positives from these initiatives are already being felt, with this week’s exchange rates remaining relatively stable at around US$1:ZW$ 7 000 with the parallel market failing to fund the current rates.
