Zimdollar remains solid
HARARE - For the second week running, the Zimbabwe dollar was virtually unchanged against the US dollar at the weekly auction, shifting just one two hundreth of one percent to $81.3499 from last week’s $81.3458, a shift of just 0,41 of a Zimbabwean cent.
Since the middle of August, when the price discovery process of the early auctions reached a stable plateau, the weekly movement of the weighted average, which is now the official rate, has been trivial, exceeding one percent just once and that was a firming of the local currency.
The stable auction rate has been reflected in similar stability in the black market although recently the premium has been falling for cash-to-cash transactions as Zimbabweans and Zimbabwean businesses accept that the auction system has not only achieved a stable rate, but that all productive sectors can now access their foreign currency on the auctions at that stable rate.
The stable exchange rate has seen major stability in prices, effectively reducing monthly inflation to very low figures that are expected to drop even further.
The stability rests on the stable money supply of Zimbabwean dollars, a direct result of the fiscal and monetary discipline introduced by the Second Re
public with the Government now living consistently on its tax receipts.
At Tuesday’s auction the highest bidder on the main auction offered $87.1 (almost a $1 down from last week’s $88.07) as bidders edge closer to the average, while the lowest bid remained at $79. All valid bids were accepted. On the SMEs auction the highest offered remained at $86, while the lowest accepted bid was also unchanged at $79.
Big corporations were allocated a total of US$27.05 million, all they asked for and the third highest allotment, while smaller businesses received a total of US$1.74 million, again all they asked for and the second highest on record.
The total foreign currency allocation was US$28.7 million marginally down from US$29.2 million last week but the drop was a slight cut in demand, since all bids that met housekeeping rules were accepted as all valid bids were within the band deemed acceptable.
The main auction saw 223 successful bidders allocated the US$27.05 million with another 15 bids disqualified. And on the SMEs board, 132 valid bidders received the total of US$1.74 million with another 14 disqualified. Bids for goods not on the priority list are rejected, as are bidders that have not sorted out the paperwork for past imports and exports. The number of rejected bids is also dropping weekly as almost all importers now routinely get their paperwork sorted out properly.
The foreign currency auction system-driven stability is expected to be the basis upon which the economy is expected to bounce in the coming year.