Categories: Stories

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe now needs to look at Old Mutual Implied Rate

Reports today said the gap between the black market rate of the Zimbabwe dollar against the United States dollar and the official rate had vanished.

This, the reports said, was due to new regulations by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe of Zimbabwe that rates for bureaux de change must be within 7 % of the official rate and that bureaux de change should only pay out cash to people intending to travel and must stamp their passports.

The central bank also closed the accounts of four companies which were suspected to be fuelling the black market.

While rates have tumbled, the Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR), seems to be getting worse raising questions as to whether the central bank should not intervene.

Marketwatch today put the OMIR at 20.52 to the US dollar way above the highest black market rate of 15:1 and the official rate of 14.91 to 1.

The cash rate was 9.7 to 1.

African Financials, however, put the OMIR at 25.3 today down from 20.5 on Friday.

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Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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