Multicurrency here to stay, levy on diesel lifted, says Ncube as RBZ increases interest rates

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube says multicurrency system will continue up to 2025 when the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) will come to an end.

Addressing the media in the capital today, Ncube said as of now Zimbabweans are at liberty to use both the US dollar and Zimdollar for transactions.

“The use of the multi-currency system will continue over the NDS 1 period and we want to assure the market that there is no reversal of pricing around this exchange rate system that we have adopted.

“We want to assure the public that this will continue until 2025, we have a situation where you can make use of the US dollar for domestic transactions or make use of the domestic currency and you are free to choose,” he said.

He said the government has removed levy on diesel and dropped the petrol levy to 4.7c.

This move has prevented the price of fuel from breaching the US$2/litre mark.

Apparently, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has sharply raised interest rates.

The main bank policy rate is up from 80% to 200% per annum.
This means that borrowing money from the bank has now become more expensive, and puts increased pressure on banks.

Meanwhile, economic watchers have been calling on the Harare administration to fully dollarise and dump the local currency.

The Zimdollar is trading badly against the key convertible currencies particularly the green buck.

According to the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency inflation has been on the rise.

Zwnews