Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said that the country’s increased foreign currency receipts, which reached US$11.6 billion in 2022, have helped companies retool and boost investments.
Ncube told the Sunday News that the bulk of forex inflows are exporters’ receipts, which is nearly US$10 billion, while diaspora remittances were US$2 billion. He said:
We have two types of inflows, the bulk are exporters’ receipts, which are the private companies mainly in the mining sector, and the small bit, which is $2 billion worth of remittances from the diaspora.
The first part, which is almost US$10 billion, are export receipts, as you know we have a retention policy which, as we speak, is at 25 percent.
This is what we force the companies to convert to Zimbabwe dollars and then we take that and use it to feed the auction, to spread these US dollars across other sectors that do not earn foreign currency.
These United States dollars are actually in the hands of private companies and they are using these to retool and recapitalise.
These companies are able to invest, create jobs, manufacture new products, retool, and this has helped reduce pressure on Government to supply them with US dollars through the auction.
During the interview with State media, Ncube also said the Government will maintain interest rates at par with inflation to promote the use of the Zimbabwe dollar in local transactions.