Mthuli Ncube - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Zimbabwe to link exchange rate to hard assets, create currency board

ZIMBABWE is working on new measures to stabilise its local currency including linking the exchange rate to hard assets such as gold and creating a currency board, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said. The Zimbabwean dollar has fallen about 40% since the start of the year, hurt by increased foreign-currency demand from civil servants being paid December bonuses and weaker commodity prices denting inflows. Last week President Emmerson Mnangagwa said authorities were looking to introduce a "structured currency", without explaining how that would work, and the central bank governor said that work was ongoing. "The idea going forward is to make sure that…

Oct

2023

By NYASHA CHINGONO

Zimbabwe wants new IMF staff-monitored programme by April

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE hopes to agree on a new staff-monitored programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by April next year, with an IMF team due to visit later this month for initial talks, its finance minister said. "Our intention is that by the time we go for the Spring Meetings in April 2024, we should have signed off on a staff-monitored programme," Mthuli Ncube told reporters in Marrakech at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings. "It will focus on maintaining discipline on the fiscal front and continue fine-tuning our exchange rate system and maintaining a tight monetary policy." An IMF…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe Jan-Sept diaspora remittances up 45% y/y due to lockdowns

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE's central bank governor says official remittances from the diaspora were up 45% during the January-September period from last year at $657.7 million as COVID-19 lockdowns forced people to send cash home via official channels. Diaspora remittances are an important source of foreign exchange for the southern African country, which is in the grip of its worst economic crisis in more than a decade that has seen worsened dollar shortages. Most of Zimbabwe's more than 2 million-strong diaspora live in South Africa, many of them illegally, and often send money via unofficial channels, including buses and trucks. When Zimbabwe and…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe expects inflation of 134% this year -finmin

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE expects its average annual inflation to slow to 134% in 2020, according to a finance ministry document, more than halving the central bank's previous forecast. The country is grappling with its worst economic crisis in more than a decade, with runaway inflation of 659.4% year-on-year in September, and severe shortages of foreign currency, food and medicine. The document, outlining Zimbabwe's strategy for the 2021 budget which is set to be delivered at the end of November, said the slowdown in inflation would be thanks to a deepening of the foreign currency auction market, which is expected to aid exchange…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe economy to shrink by 4.5%

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE's economy is expected to shrink by 4.5% this year owing to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and a brutal climate change-related drought, the finance minister said on Thursday. The crucial mining sector will contract by 4%, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube added in a mid-term budget speech, although he projected that GDP would rebound to 7.4% growth in 2021. Ncube added that inflation was expected to gradually decline to 300% by December, compared with 737.36% currently. Zimbabwe's economy was in a mess even before COVID-19 struck, with rampant inflation, chronic shortages of food, foreign currency and medicines, all worsened…