Who is causing parallel market rates to spike?

FOR the past 18 months, Zimbabwe’s  economy has been on a rebound, assisted by a stronger performance in the agricultural and mining sectors, an improved balance of payments and external sector position, as well as the introduction of an auction trading system that has improved access to foreign currency for the productive sectors.

All credible institutions, among them the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, are projecting Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by anything between 3% and 7%, which is also consistent with forecasts by the Finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

These projections had not taken into account other positives such as the injection of US$961 million from the IMF to support the country’s recovery from the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic, as well as commendable efforts by the authorities in keeping their vision of achieving herd immunity by year-end, within reach.

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