World Bank senior economist Dhiraj Sharma said the local
currency was “rapidly losing value”.
Sharma was presenting the findings on the poverty, income,
consumption and expenditure surveys (PICES) conducted between July 2020 and
January 2023 through telephone interviews by the Zimbabwe National Statistics
Agency (ZimStat), in partnership with the World Bank and United Nations
Children’s Fund.
Nine rounds of the PICES survey were conducted between July
2020 and January 2023.
“One thing that the survey started to track on was the use
of foreign currency on domestic transactions,” he said.
“So overall, we see, to a larger extent, other currencies
are being used almost exclusively. People use the Zimbabwe dollar for
transactions for about less than 3% of the transactions. And this is for five
key food items which are maize meal, cooking oil, rice, beef and bread.”
Prices of basic commodities have been skyrocketing, with
the local currency on a free fall.
Some goods are now being exclusively sold in United States
dollars.
The parallel market rate of the United States dollar
against the local currency spiralled to $2 700 while the official rate stands
at $1 097.
Sharma said dollarisation was more prevalent in rural areas
than in urban areas.
“The US$ is being used for almost two-thirds of the US
dollar or the South African rand for transactions, for 9% and the Zimbabwe
dollar for 23%,” he said.
“The use of foreign currency is more widespread in rural
areas, which is also a novel finding. Among the five basic food items, the use
of foreign currency was higher in some than others, for example cooking oil and
rice.
“But overall, this shows the extent to which people are
using alternative currencies because the local currencies cannot function
properly as stores of value and medium of exchange.”
Government has resisted growing calls to redollarise.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa reintroduced the local currency in 2019 after a
decade of dollarisation. Newsday
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