Zimbabwe plans new measures to prop up currency
Zimbabwe plans to announce new measures to stem the decline in the nation’s currency on the official and parallel markets, according to the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.
The local dollar has weakened 32% so far this year on the official market, making it easily the world’s worst-performing currency. It has declined more than 40% on the parallel market.
Planned measures could include the reform of a weekly foreign-exchange auction run by the central bank, the newspaper reported, citing Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. Authorities also plan to increase supply of US dollars in the market.
“Government will be taking further fiscal and monetary policy measures which may include auction redesign in order to deal with the volatility,” Ncube was quoted as saying by the Harare-based weekly publication. “The government will also increase the supply of foreign currency at a time when demand for it is high.”
The weekly auction has provided more than $4 billion to local companies in foreign exchange since it began operation in June 2020, the central bank said earlier this month.
The Zimbabwe dollar was reintroduced back into circulation in 2019 after a ten year hiatus. The American currency is used in 80% of all economic transactions in the country.
