By 
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Panonetsa Mangudya has given a directive to support gold coins circulating in the economy digitally.
In an exclusive interview with TechnoMag after chairing a meeting with his Monetary Policy Committee, Dr Mangudya purposed to enlarge the value preserving instruments and enhance divisibility and widen their access to the public.
Governor Mangudya directed his Monetary Policy Committee to not only support but complement the ongoing issuance of the physical gold coins introduced last year with backed digital products.
“This initiative will allow gold coins to be widely traded and in the process expand tradable assets in the economy for store of value purposes and will be over and above the procurement, by the Bank of smaller US$ denominations for divisibility purposes and /change for transactions in the economy,” said Governor Mangudya.
Mangudya also assured he is fully committed to stay the course of a tight monetary policy stance and to cautiously adjust the policy rates in line with positive developments in the economy.
In addition, the Governor reduced interest rates, on top of introducing digital gold coins.He further entrenched his MPC to reduce the interest rates in line with the current inflation, whilst focus on the introduction of the digital gold coins will be meant to further widen the instrument’s tradability.
Meanwhile annual inflation declined from 101, 5% in January 2023 to 92,3% in February 2023 and further down to 87,6% in March 2023 amid expectations that it will continue on that disinflation path.
Zimbabwe’s month on month inflation declined from 0,7% in January 2023 to -1,6% in February 2023 and 0,1% in March 2023.
Dr. Mangudya said he takes guidance from his objective to continue mastering exchange rate and inflation expectations in the economy, promising to stay in course of his tight Monetary Policy Stance (MPS) as the nation aligns the interest rates to realistic inflation rates.
“With effect from 1 April 2023, the MPC reduced the bank Policy Rate from 150% to 140% per annum. The Medium Term Bank Accommodation Facility for the productive sectors, including individuals and MSMEs was also reduced from 75% to 70% per annum.
“The MPC moved to maintain the prevailing Bank policy rate as the minimum lending rate for all banks. Statutory reserves requirements were maintained at 10% for demand and call deposits and 5% for time and savings deposits for both domestic and foreign currency deposits,” he said.
With the recent developments, deposit rates on savings and time deposits have been maintained at the minimum of 30% and 50% per annum respectively while the Willing Seller Willing Buyer (WBWS) market was further liberalised by increasing and standardizing the trading margins for authorized dealers from the current 5% to 10% consistent with the margin applicable bureau de change retailers and maintaining the maximum amount per transaction at US$100 000.
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