The RBZ and the entire government for that matter are quite proud of their weekly foreign currency auctions that are held every Tuesday. Although the reality is much more complicated, a lot of officials have claimed that the current lull in black market activity and the relative stabilisation of black market rates is a result of the introduction of this auction. Now one prominent Twitter who goes by the handle Baba Nyenyedzi has thrown what could be a bombshell.

The user whose real name is Tinashe Murapata has claimed that the government has been borrowing money offshore in order to prop up the auction system. Below is his full Twitter thread:

RBZ has been borrowing money offshore to feed the Auction. This is a patently bad market setting move. The tax payer will assume the exchange rate losses. More worrisome is that RBZ offshore debt is US$4.5bn. Another debt assumption bill.
If central borrows fx from abroad and sells to local importers they suck ZWL liquidity out. But this is false bravado because the same central bank must in the future buy currency to payback offshore loan. Liquidity doesn’t change if it was exporters matched with importers.
No. The bulk is borrowed Loans from abroad by RBZ. Exporters have only contributed USD$2.5m.
Baba Nyenyedzi on Twitter

It’s not exactly clear how this borrowing arrangement works or who the source is if there is one single source. In previous times the government and RBZ have been accused of having a shady and opaque arrangement with Afreximbank. However, in all the auctions that have been conducted the amount of forex that the buyers want has exceeded the amount that is available.