Zimbabwe to crack down on businesses using black market rates this week

HON. T. MLISWA: This is an opportunity for us to be honest; the biggest national security threat is the inconsistency of the monetary policy.  Ecocash has its own price when you are going to the shops, RTGS, Bond notes and the Nostro account which is USD has its own price and is no longer accepted.  So, when you want to make a payment through the Nostro account bank to bank in USD, they are refusing.  They is now a 7% which they charge for you to withdraw the cash.

How can we sustain or run an economy when all the monetary policies that we have had do not work and you still stand up in boldness and try to convince us?  People are suffering every day, why did they embark on this when their framework was not in order?  How would you put the cart before the horse?

HON. CHIDUWA: It is true what the Hon. Member said that we are having different rates.  What the Hon. Member submitted in terms of the operations of the parallel market, it is true that we are having different rates, ecocash, RTGS etcetera but that does not make it legal.  In terms of the USD; I think what is important is also for us to check what is happening in the market.  We are having a lot of people who are having lots of USD balances and they are trying to get the RTGS balances.  The most popular currency at the moment as we speak is the RTGS.  You need to go to the market and see what is happening.

The Monetary Policy which has been mentioned; we have actually done our Monetary Policy excellently.  If you check in terms of the money supply growth that is in the market, there is virtually no excess in liquidity that is in the market and because of that, we are having business looking for RTGS balances that are nowhere to be found.  So, I am not sure, we may not want to say our monetary policy is a miracle monetary policy but we are on the right track.  The Monetary policy supporting the fiscal policy and we know we are getting there.

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