Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube said that the refusal by banks to lend money both in Zimbabwe dollars and in United States dollars prompted the Government to enact Statutory Instrument 218 of 2023 which extended the use of the multiple currency system to December 2030.
Ncube said this during his presentation at this year’s pre-budget seminar, held under the theme “Consolidating Economic Transformation”, at the new parliament building. NewZimbabwe.com quoted Ncube as saying:
You saw the SI that we issued a few days ago, where we said because of that, we wanted an orderly situation in the market rather than disorder.
Disorder was beginning to emerge. What we saw in the banking sector. Banks were now refusing to lend money at all, some of them in USD, so that had become chaotic.
So we thought that let’s release some pressure from the market to restore order.
Minister Ncube also stated that despite extending the multi-currency regime by another 7 years, the Government has not abandoned plans for a mono-currency. He said:
We are headed for mono currency, let’s be clear about that, but we want order. So the extension to 2030 was to create order and calm in the market.
Economists estimate that 80% of the local economy is dollarised, with the gap between the official and exchange rates continuing to widen.
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