Zim Dollar Tumble A Result Of The End Of Tobacco Season – RBZ

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:23 pm

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said the fall in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar against the US dollar and other currencies in recent weeks is as a result of the end of the tobacco marketing season.

Tobacco is one of the four major foreign currency earners for the country, the others being gold, chrome and platinum.

This was revealed by RBZ Deputy Governor Kupukile Mlambo, who was standing in for RBZ Governor John Mangudya when he appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Monday. He said:

The movements of the exchange rate are a reflection of the fact that we have come to the end of the tobacco marketing season.

This country relies on four commodities for foreign currency – gold, tobacco chrome and platinum – and between February to the end of August or early September we had all the four but at the end of August we had only three, so the amount of foreign currency has declined and these movements are a reflection of that.

They (the movements) are a reflection of what’s happening in the market. They have nothing to do with Treasury Bills because the minister (Professor Mthuli Ncube) was very clear on that he doesn’t borrow from the RBZ anymore and that’s the only way we can increase the money supply through the issuance of TBs.