After being mostly steady for months it seems the black market exchange rate has been climbing at an accelerated rate in recent days. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has expressed alarm and lashed out at perceived manipulators. The bank has also threatened to freeze those suspected of putting pressure on the exchange rate.

Such malpractice is not warranted as money supply has remained under control for the past five months.
The matter has been escalated to the Financial Intelligence Unit that is proceeding to investigate and freeze the accounts of those upsetting the market.

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— Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (@ReserveBankZIM) January 24, 2020

This is likely to put a chill on things a little

This announcement will probably put a chill on things as we have seen in the not so distant past. These past two months the RBZ has refrained from freezing accounts and even now they are merely threatening to do so. Their resolve must not be under-estimated however as their ban on Ecocash several months ago demonstrated their determination to get a handle on things.

The rate climb will probably slow down but there are factors in the economy such as the very obvious shortage of foreign currency that is likely to limit any possible rate drops.