Spike in coronavirus cases disrupts Zimbabwe Forex auction

The spike in the number of coronavirus cases in Zimbabwe has forced the central bank to postpone the re-opening of the foreign currency auction from 11 January to 18 January.

Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya said the spike had impacted negatively on the ability of authorised dealers to timeously submit essential information required to carry out the due diligence on auction bid documentation submitted by their clients.

“As a result, authorised dealers were not able to submit all the required information for the first auction of 2022, originally set for 11 January 2022. In order to give authorised dealers sufficient time to carry out the necessary due diligence and submit the required documentation, the first auction of 2022 will be held on 18 January 2022,” the central bank said.

There have been 42 488 coronavirus cases and 363 deaths since the auction closed on 14 December.

Active cases have, however, dropped from 42 666 to 24 070 during the same period.

Zimbabwe is under a Level Two national lockdown which will be reviewed next week.

It postponed the re-opening of schools, except examination classes, because of the spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

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