- Year on year losses at 85%
- Month to date losses at 4%
- Week to date losses at 1.44%
Harare- Under-fired Zimbabwe dollar has widened year-to-date loses by a record 85%, from ZWL142.4237 on the 29th of March 2022 to ZWL928.5887 on the 28th March 2023. Month-to-date losses have widened by 4% while week-to-date losses have widened by 1.44%, the biggest decline since the beginning of March.
This was the worst week-to-date decline for the Zimbabwe dollar due to the aftermath effects of Aljazeera’s Gold Mafia documentary which exposed high-level corruption involving high-level government officials.
The Zimbabwe dollar is also being affected by the money madness season (elections period) which saw a 400% salary hike for the police and army causing high liquidity of Zimbabwe dollars in the market against a few US dollars.
Fiscal indiscipline and policy slippages ahead of the 2023 general elections are expected to grow due to the government’s habit of tempering with the RBZ operations to fund campaign projects and security personnel.
US$20 million was allotted from US$18 million last week, an indication of high traffic for the US dollar.
However, the blooming parallel market rate indicates the insufficiency of the auction market to provide foreign currency for companies. Zimbabwe dollar continues to lose ground against the greenback.
Hiking salaries in Zimbabwe dollars is madness as it will keep on inflating the parallel market rate where US dollars are obtained by the general populace.
Government should reconsider re-dollarisation if it is destined to hype the standards of living for its people.
High levels of confidence deficit in the local currency will continue growing the demand for the US dollars.
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