Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) vice president, Mike Kamungeremu, said there is a need for greater consistency on policy measures and fulfilment of promises by the Government to instil confidence in the volatile economy.
Kamungeremu said authorities have failed to clear the auction market backlog despite making numerous promises.
He was speaking during a panel discussion at the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) currency indaba in Harare on Thursday. Kamungeremu said:
Foreign currency auction has worked but it has worked at some point, but as we speak right now as a business we are almost desperate.
With the backlog that is there, it is very difficult, we have had calls for the clearing of the backlog made and several promises have been made, but unfortunately, those promises have not been fulfilled and that is a critical issue.
That touches on the aspect of confidence, when I hear promises being made and I have money that has been in the queue (at the auction) since January, I will not have confidence, this is why we then see problems happening on the currency front because the currency is just a derivative of what is obtaining in the broader economy.
He also queried why the Government was not prosecuting alleged perpetrators of currency manipulation. Said Kamungeremu:
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been making a number of pronouncements and they have been promising to take action against those that are known, we believe RBZ knows everything and we expect them to take action.
We have heard that there are people sabotaging the economy, and manipulating the system but what we want to see is more action.
We should have seen some form of punishment for them, we implore the central bank to take action so that we do not punish everyone.
There is a lot of arbitrage taking place emanating from the disparities in the exchange rates.
Action needs to be taken, to reduce the chances of arbitrage and chances for corruption.
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate for May 2022 rose to 131.7 per cent from 96.4 per cent in April this year.