OMIR 5.02
USD / RTGS 4.55
USD / RTGS 3.06 (interbank)
USD / BOND 4.33
USD / RTGS 330% – 3 April 2019
OMIR 5.35
USD / RTGS 4.30
USD / RTGS 3.02 (interbank)
USD / BOND 4.18
USD / RTGS 325% – 2 April 2019
OMIR 5.32
USD / RTGS 4.25
USD / RTGS 3.02 (interbank)
USD / BOND 4.11
USD / RTGS 355% – 1 April 2019
OMIR 5.42
USD / RTGS 4.55
USD / RTGS 3.01 (interbank)
USD / BOND 4.31
Zimbabwe faces critical fuel shortages after Cyclone Idai
GT, Mines and Specialities Manager Chris Kasima of Total Zimbabwe has said that fuel supply to Zimbabwe has been disrupted due to the damages caused by cyclone Idai.
Kasima said, Zimbabwe will go through a temporary phase of critical shortage of fuel as the jetty in Beira has been damaged and can not receive vessels to discharge.
He also said the pumping house roof was blown away and the electricity board was damaged however the extent of the damage was yet to be established.
The condition of the pipeline is yet to be established and thus, they await to hear from the National Oil Infrastructure Company (NOIC) on the way forward.
There had been fears of a possible crippling fuel shortages in Zimbabwe after cyclone Idai destroyed some most of the Mozambican Port city of Beira.
Beira is a pivotal route for delivery of goods into Zimbabwe. The officials in Zimbabwe who have been inundated with search and rescue operations following the devastation of cyclone Idai have not as yet issued a statement with regards the impending fuel crisis.
More: reportfocusnews
A month of the RTGS $: Zimbabwe finance minister says so far so good with new currency
Just under a month ago, Zimbabwe launched a new pricing system that some – but not the government – are calling a currency.
It is part of a plan by Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as he seeks to open up the economy to international investment and remove the barriers to doing business after two decades of stagnation and hyperinflation.
“We should put a situation where anyone looking at country ‘B’ and looking at country ‘A’ and looking at Zimbabwe will say no, no I must go to Zimbabwe, things are better, things have changed, this is what we are going to do,” he told The National during a visit to the UAE.
Asked how the new mechanism – officially called the RTGS dollar – fits into this plan, the president invited Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, who was sitting nearby, to give a comprehensive answer.
He described the move as the culmination of a months-long process to “resolve our currency’s former issues”.
“This is the kind of journey we need to go through to restore the full value of our currency and show investors that we are a normal economy,” he said.
“What it has done is a few things,” Mr Ncube said. “It has restored full monetary policy as a tool to support and work along with fiscal policy – we can now set interest rates, we can now target reserve money, we can now use it as a tool for managing inflation rate exceptions.”
For years, the Zimbabwe dollar was pegged to the US dollar at an exchange rate of 1 to 1. But when inflation peaked in 2009 at 231 million per cent, with prices doubling daily, the government threw out its cash with its famous 100 trillion dollar note in favour of the greenback.
But more US dollars were leaving Zimbabwe than entering and long queues at banks were not uncommon. Attempts to return to some form of local currency were largely unsuccessful and met with distrust.
In the absence of a national currency and with US dollars in short supply, many in Zimbabwe began using numerous foreign currencies, debit cards and – increasingly – money stored on mobile apps.
But this led to prices appearing in numerous currencies, often at different rates depending on the payment method.
The RTGS, an acronym for Real Time Gross Settlement, is an attempt to set a unified price for all methods of payment. But crucially, it is not a physical currency and exists solely on screens.
The RTGS dollar will have a floating exchange rate rather than being pegged.
Mr Ncube said the benefit is that “above all we now have market-determined value for assets in Zimbabwe, we will also improve access to foreign currency because now you can get it at a market price.”
And three weeks in, the finance minister said it has been “so far so good.”
Mr Ncubeexplained that now launched, the administration was staying out of the way to “make sure that we don’t, as a government, distort the market”.
He said they have plans to set up a monetary policy committee to set interest rates and strengthen the reserve bank’s role as the lender of last resort for the country’s banks.
In the long run, he explained, the government may even be able to issue a physical money equivalent to the currently electronic RTGS dollar.
“This is the kind of journey we need to go through to restore the full value of our currency and show investors that we are a normal economy and their value is protected,” Mr Ncube said.
Via The National
Bond notes have not failed, people do not know the genesis of the bond note: Dr Mangudya
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya took the opportunity at yesterday’s public accounts committee hearing, to clearly explain the genesis of the Bond Notes hailing it as a success.
According to the Governor the bond note was a success as an export incentive and called on those calling it a failure to do more research on the Bond Notes.
Mangudya was responding to Dzivarasekwa MP Edwin Mushoriwa who asked him why he had not resigned after the bond notes had allegedly failed, as he had “promised” to do.
However, Mangudya stood firm on his claims, highlighting that bond notes did not fail as an export incentive, but were a major success as evidenced by the rise in foreign currency receipts due to their introduction.
“For starters people always want to put words in my mouth. What I said and repeat today under oath is, ‘if the bond note, as an export incentive scheme fails to promote exports in this country, I will resign,” the Governor said.
Mr Tendai Biti interjected and read a statement attributed to Dr Mangudya, published on September 16, 2016, which reads: “On this matter (bond notes), the buck stops here. We do not want this idea of giving people problems, which I make myself. Give us a chance to do what is right for this economy, to put it back on track.”
“If these policy measures fail, if the bond notes do not work out, I’m willing to resign because I am genuine about getting the economy back on track.”
Dr Mangudya retorted, by saying ‘if the bond note fails to do its work, which was to promote exports’ (I will resign)”.
Dr Mangudya said “People do not know the genesis of bond notes. The bond note is monetising the export incentive scheme. The reason why we were giving them 5 to 10 percent was to promote exports.”
In the 2018 Mid-Term Monetary Policy Statement, Dr Mangudya said a combined $743,2 million incentive was paid out to exporters who earned US$12,6 billion in forex.
Dr Mangudya also said the 1:1 value of the US dollar and bond notes had not failed, “…there is $437 million worth of bond notes and total banking sector deposits of $10 billion, implying that “what has failed is not bond notes, what happened is that the economy expanded much more than the forex generated”.
“It’s a failure of the economy to generate much foreign currency to maintain its (1:1) parity (due to Government expenditure),” he added.
More: reportfocusnews