Business Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met recently and deliberated on interventions aimed at preserving the gains of stability.
The MPC key highlights are as below;
- The MPC opted in favour of standardizing the statutory reserve requirements for both foreign and local currency deposits at 15% and for savings and time deposits at 5%.
- A statutory reserve is the money which banks deposit with the central bank for every dollar deposited by their clients as a buffer against uncertainties.
- Prior to the initiative, the US$ threshold was at 10% while the ZW$ was at 15%.
- Market watchers believe that the initiative is aimed at curtailing the rapid extension of loans by banks in US$ while effectively promoting the wider usage of the ZWL.
- The central bank also resolved to maintain the bank policy rate at 150% per annum and retain the Medium Term Accommodation lending facility at 75% per annum.
- The MPC was pleased with the strong uptake of Gold Backed Digital Tokens (GBDT) for value preservation purposes, which stood at 332 536 636 milligrams as at 19 September 2023.
- The bank will expedite the phase for transacting in GBDT, styled Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) as an additional payment method alongside existing payment platforms.
- ZIG will complement the local currency and foreign currency in facilitating domestic transactions in a more certain and predictable manner given the stability of the international gold price and added that to engender confidence in ZiG , an independent certification mechanism will be put in place to reassure the public of the availability and adequacy of the gold to back ZiG .
