It has been a tough couple of weeks for the RBZ as they battle to tame spiralling black market exchange rates. Just last month, the rate was below 250 ZWL per 1 USD, and now a lot of shops are now using a rate of $380 ZWL per 1 USD. The central bank has been throwing everything at the problem, but their ongoing feud with the CZI over how the auction works has not helped. Their response to CZI’s public chastisement seemed to imply that the RBZ is hell-bent on de-dollarisation no matter what. The central bank has now clarified that they will not rush to ban USD and foreign currency transactions anytime soon. They seem committed to the multicurrency system.

Further to the unintended circulation of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) paper, meant for dialogue with the authorities, we would like to clarify matters and update our members and the public.

We have subsequently met with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr JP Mangudya and would like to highlight the outcome of our meeting.

CZI’s statement on the issue

As already pointed out the current ongoing feud with the RBZ has done more harm than good. First, although CZI claims the paper that “leaked” for private dialogue with the RBZ it seems unlikely that the leak was accidental. The CZI probably wanted to put pressure on the central bank that has been reneging on a number of promises surrounding their auction system. Chief among the problems of the auction is the fact that the central bank has struggled to clear the backlog. It’s a problem that is likely to persist given how supply problems continue to dog the formal market thanks to very low rates.

RBZ promises not to “raid” people’s bank accounts

One unforgivable sin that the RBZ has committed over the past 5 or so years has been the habitual habit of dipping into people’s foreign currency accounts. While most people prefer to call it what it is-raiding. The RBZ loathes the term and denies ever raiding people’s accounts. The simple trught is that they did. they used bond notes and coins as well as RTGS to suplant USD in people’s accounts resulting in the currently skyrocketing RTGS money supply we are seeing right now.

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