The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has stepped up to create prices and economic stability after clearing the bulk of outstanding foreign currency auction backlogs.
Upon being interviewed The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya said that the central bank cleared the backlog this week while residual payments will be done before the end of this month.
He assured the market that the next step was to allocate funds within the central bank’s capacity to settle to avoid backlogs.
The forex auction was established in June 2020 to manage greenback shortages, which have pushed companies to the black market for capital to import raw materials and implements.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) warned last year that manufacturing operations were curtailed by backlogs, which were precipitating production cutbacks and high production costs.
Meanwhile, the RBZ had by this week carried out 101 forex auctions.
“The 94 to 99 auctions have been cleared to become current, while we are working expeditiously to clear by the end of July the residuals (backlogs from allotments) before auction 94,” the central bank chief said.
However, in a statement to members released yesterday, CZI said the RBZ was struggling to clear backlogs. Claiming that firms were still depending on the black market for their forex requirements.
