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Zimbabwe has lifted its ban on bank lending, more than a week after the government froze loans in a move it said was meant to stop speculation against a rapidly devaluing local currency.
The Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe said at the time it had started investigating unnamed speculators of taking out Zimbabwe dollar bank loans to purchase foreign currency on the black market, driving the local currency’s value lower.
“Further to the circular the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued to banks on 9 May 2022, the Bank wishes to advice the public that the temporary suspension of lending services by banks has been lifted with immediate effect. The lifting of the suspension does not apply to those entities that are under investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for abusing loan facilities to the detriment of the economy . The FIU has accordingly advised all banks of the affected entities”
Zimbabwe reintroduced its currency in 2019, a decade after abandoning it in favour of foreign currencies, mainly the United States dollar. Since its return, the local currency’s value has declined from around 2.5 to the U.S dollar in 2019 to 285 against the greenbank on the interbank market.
It trades much weaker, around 400 to the U.S dollar on a thriving black market.
The lending freeze did slow the Zimbabwean dollar’s slide on the black market, although it had little impact on the official rate.
Posting on his twitter page Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Nick Mangwana said “We said it was temporary. We have lived true to our word”
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