Dedollarisation requires US$2,5bn: Govt
ZIMBABWE needs over US$2,5 billion in foreign currency reserves to be able to fully de-dollarise, the government has revealed, discounting sentiments that the exercise can be taken anytime soon.
The revelation comes at a time when Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa hinted on the removal of the United States dollar if the new currency, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) remained stable and grew in value.
Last year, the government announced that it had a clear and transparent plan to move away from using the United States dollar to prevent continued exchange rate volatility.
This plan involved introducing ZiG, which debuted in April and backed by commodities and forex. Treasury and the central bank are expected to implement supportive policies to strengthen ZiG to get it internationally accepted, leading to the multicurrency regime being scrapped.
However, this has been a tall order as the market continues to overwhelmingly prefer forex with several companies adopting the greenback as a reporting currency, post the ZiG introduction.
“There is actually two point something billion US-dollars (circulating in the economy) and about US$2 billion of that is actually in US dollars, and the other US$300 million (worth) is in ZiG,” Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion deputy minister David Mnangagwa said, during the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe Winter School in Victoria falls last Friday.
