(Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s commercial banks are under orders to
restrict U.S. dollar transactions to companies and individuals with foreign
payments to make, according to a central bank directive that demonstrates the
slow progress of currency reforms.
The document, a measure of the foreign exchange controls
that remain in place six days after authorities announced moves to ease chronic
cash shortages, also states such transactions should be aimed at stimulating
economic growth.
It was sent to banks on Friday and seen by Reuters on
Tuesday. Zimbabwe abandoned a discredited 1:1 dollar peg for its
dollar-surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars last week, merging them into
a lower-value transitional currency called the RTGS dollar.
It launched the RTGS dollar in a “managed float” at 2.5 per
U.S. dollar, but as of Tuesday, banks had yet to start selling hard currency in
cash.
Banks were only selling U.S. dollars to firms and
individuals with invoices or receipts for imports deemed a priority, such as
fuel and medicines.
“All interbank market sales to individuals and corporates
shall be restricted to funding of external obligations,” and banks should
submit dealing reports every two hours, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
directive said.
Dealers were encouraged to take steps “to ensure efficient
utilisation of foreign currency that is tilted towards the productive sectors of
the economy,” it added.
The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that Botswana had
offered to lend Zimbabwe $600 million to support its diamond industry and
private firms.
Economists say the RTGS reform shows promise provided the
government makes good on a plan to let the new currency fluctuate.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told Reuters in an interview
on Monday that, while the market should determine the RTGS rate, the government
wanted to avoid excessive volatility.
However, the current official rate values the RTGS far higher
than on a thriving black market that many ordinary Zimbabweans use to buy and
sell U.S. dollars.
Tellers at two banks in downtown Harare said they could
help clients make payments for overseas purchases at 2.5625 RTGS, the rate that
other banks offered on Monday.
However, “the RBZ hasn’t given us any U.S. dollars in cash
yet,” a teller at a CABS bank branch said.
The central bank sold what it called “seed foreign currency
capital” to banks, but the sums in question appear to be tiny.
A senior RBZ official told The Standard newspaper around $5
million had changed hands on the interbank market on Friday.
Bureaux de change can in theory sell people U.S. dollars in
cash, but they are few and far between and the central bank directive said some
would have to re-apply for operating licences.
One exchange bureau at the Road Port bus station in Harare
was not selling U.S. dollars in cash yet but hoped it would start making sales
next Monday.
Exchange rates on the black market for the bond note –
which many people still use in shops – were at 3.6 to the U.S. dollar,
unchanged from Monday, informal currency traders said.
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