In the first instalment of his new weekly column in our sister paper, The Sunday Mail, President Mnangagwa said Government is in the process of putting mechanisms in place to protect earnings and savings both in local and foreign currency, including $9 billion in real-time gross settlement (RTGS) deposits.
“Government continues to work flat out to protect consumers, defend wage values and secure savings. This includes the $9 billion in RTGS deposits in our banks. We are already putting in place legally enforceable measures to protect such earnings and savings, whether in local or foreign currency. No one will lose their money,” he said in the column published yesterday.
The President urged the nation to embrace the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), saying there were pains to be borne and sacrifices to be made before things start looking up for the ordinary man in the street.
TSP, which was recently presented by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube, is a sound fiscal adjustment policy aimed at enhancing the country’s economic growth and development.
“We must all gird for belt-tightening measures, leaders and ordinary citizens alike. No one is immune to the sacrifices that are necessary to stabilise the economy. Those of us in leadership across all sectors of our economy must show the way through even bigger sacrifices,” he said.
Lately, the President, said, Government has announced a raft of monetary and fiscal measures which the markets are digesting daily for business decisions.
He said the Second Republic is committed to addressing the issue of instability in prices.
President Mnangagwa reiterated that there was no need for people to panic in light of the prevailing economic situation.
“Temporary pressures must not blind us to the major gains we have made and continue to make on the economic front. Let us keep our focus on things that matter and on what needs to be urgently done. Our Vision 2030 expresses our aspiration to upper middle-income status with a per capita income of US$3 500. The economy whose growth rate this year has been revised upwards from 4,5 percent to 6 percent confirms that the aspiration is achievable and our Transitional Stabilisation Programme, which is already underway, seeks to do just that,” he said.
President Mnangagwa is also targeting illegal currency trading and related illicit financial activities through new measures that would be employed.
It is also understood that the President last week summoned his security cluster and discussed the matter, paving way for the imminent arrests of high-profile figures suspected of masterminding black market activities.
Last week there was a sudden spike in black market currency trading that saw the bond note trading as low as 1:6 to the US dollar at some point, resulting in a sharp increase in prices of basic commodities at retail outlets and panic buying of fuel prompting long queues at service stations.
However, the parallel market rates have since plunged after Government guaranteed the 1:1 convertibility value of RTGS balances to the United States dollar as well as availability of the greenback for Nostro foreign currency accounts.
President Mnangagwa is leading an aggressive realignment of the country’s economy through introducing far-reaching reforms and re-engaging the international community.
The President has on many occasions emphasised that economic revival and growth are at the centre of his Government’s agenda. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment