The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) said that retailers and manufacturers who were exclusively charging certain goods in foreign currency and using the street market rate for currency conversion have agreed to reconsider their pricing models.
In an interview with State media, FIU director-general Oliver Chiperesa said that the Unit has received assurances from retailers that they will adjust their prices in line with the prevailing official exchange rate while also accepting Zimbabwe dollars for all products. Said Chiperesa:
We engaged with them and they have assured us that they are relooking into their pricing models.
Yes, some had items that they were not allowing clients to pay for using the local currency, but we have told them that is not acceptable and they agreed to rectify it.
They also assured us that customers will be able to pay in local currency for all goods whose prices have been marked in foreign currency only.
He, however, said there were still some rogue businesses who they continue to monitor to ensure that they were brought to book.
Chiperesa gave an example of one supermarket in Belvedere, Harare, saying it had a rate higher than the parallel market. He said:
On Friday we found out that this supermarket was using an exchange rate of US$1:ZW$10 000 which has no relationship with even the parallel market.
So it is just a rate they came up with as forward pricing just to destabilise the rates because the most extreme parallel market rates were 8 000, but they are beginning to go down.
Last week, the RBZ set the official exchange rate at US$1: ZW$5 900 while the street rate was hovering at US$1: ZW$9 000.
However, some large retailers were using at least US$1: ZW$10 000 for selected products while popular fast-food outlets were rejecting the local currency on the pretext that their point-of-sale machines were not working and therefore could not accept swipe and EcoCash payments.
More: Pindula News