RBZ Bank has denied the rumor circulating in the social media recently that the Governor, John Mangudya was yesterday going to announce the devaluation of the local currency.
In a statement, from the RBZ dated February 13, the rumor is false and RBZ does not have plans to devalue the local currency but is working towards the improvement of the Zim dollar.
“The Bank would like to advise the public to disregard, with the
contempt it deserves, the false and mischievous article circulating
on social media suggesting that the Bank has devalued the local
currency. The intention of such disinformation is to cause panic
and despondency, and ultimately destabilize the country’s foreign
exchange markets through manipulation of the exchange rate.”
“We wish to advise the public that, consistent with the Monetary
Policy Committee announcement on 19 November 2019, the Bank
is enhancing the Reuters foreign exchange trading system to
ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the allocation of foreign
exchange to the productive sectors and enhancing price discovery
on the interbank market. Already, engagements have been done
with Commercial Banks to ensure smooth implementation of this
system. Currently, Banks are working on a user-test environment to
enhance the efficiency of this foreign exchange trading system.”The statement said.
Most of Zimbabwe’s problems stem from the massive RTGS balances and Bond Notes/Coins which are all pegged at 1:1 against the US dollar despite the fact that the Zimbabwean government does not have reserves to support this exchange rate and the bond is not really a full-featured currency. This has caused panic hence this statement has provided a temporary relieve to the people until the currency is stabilised.
