By Business Reporter- Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mushayavanhu has admitted that the new ZiG currency can not buy fuel and said that the central bank is still negotiating with suppliers to accept it.
Mushayavanhu appeared before the Joint Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion, and Industry and Commerce to respond to questions on the recently announced Monetary Policy Statement (MPS). He said:
We are still negotiating and considering how we can best allow the selling of fuel in ZiG.
We start on taxes to be paid in ZiG, and include other commodities and people are going to be advised.
We need to do our work gradually and we are going to reach that situation where[by] fuel is going to be sold in ZiG.
Some of the committee members asked why fuel was being sold exclusively in US dollars when most people, especially civil servants had a salary component in ZiG. Mushayavanhu responded:
Currently, we are at 85% of transactions in USD while 15% are ZiG. We will not be able to get enough ZiG if we sell fuel in the new currency.
We have US$80 million worth of ZiG in circulation on the market. In June, the country will need US$150 million worth of ZiG, hence the public must keep their ZiG…
When you get ZiG, keep it tight. By June this year, the ZiG will be hard to get. It will be very expensive. Muchaitsvaga nemaziso matsvuku.
He also emphasized that the central bank will not print money not backed by reserves. He said:
No money printing in future by RBZ. Any future increase will be done by increased production, and inflation variations whilst the circulation amount will be less than the reserves amount.
We will introduce money as when the economy demands. These variables are monitored daily to see the money in reserves, in circulation. I get this information every day.
Mushayavanhu launched ZiG on 05 April 2024, but notes and coins will start circulating on April 30, 2024.
The exchange rate is already at ZiG20 to US$1 on the parallel market as compared to ZIG13.6 to US$1 set by the RBZ.