Mangudya panics over soaring black market forex rates, says to inject US$500 million into interbank market

By Staff Reporter

GOVERNMENT, through the central bank, will Monday draw down US$500 million to supply the interbank forex market to meet national forex payment requirements in the wake of spiralling rates on the black market.

This was revealed by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya through a tweet Saturday, as signs of panic over black market rates begin to manifest within the Zanu PF administration.

”Government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is drawing down US$500 million on Monday, 20 May 2019, to supply the interbank forex market to meet the forex payment requirement of business and individuals,” Mangudya said as foreign currency shortages continue to impede economic growth and recovery.

RBZ February this year introduced the new interbank foreign exchange system after effectively devaluing its surrogate bond note based currency which was officially pegged at par with US dollar.

The system has failed to compete with the thriving black market which on Friday.

In his message earlier this year, Mangudya mentioned the system revamp would ensure “no one goes to buy foreign currency on the parallel market but three months down the line, the parallel currency is thriving with rates surging to 600 ZWL against 100 USD Friday.

He also said this amount shall go a long way to stabilise the exchange rates in the economy.

However, despite the establishment of the interbank forex market, other companies such as beverage manufacturer Delta said they were still struggling to access foreign currency.

Zimbabweans responded to the RBZ tweet encouraging Mangunya to address real issues causing the shortage of foreign currency in Zimbabwe.

@Madzudzo Ernest said, “That money will end up in the wrong hands, straight into the black market, Mr Governor, address the real issue causing the shortage of forex in Zimbabwe. We don’t have to tell you, you exactly why the economy is struggling”.

@Same Hove weighed in, “Even if you receive a bottomless pit full of forex exchange rates and prices will never be stabilized because the problem needs a political solution.”