By Own Correspondent| Finance and Economic Development, minister Mthuli Ncube said that the interbank market rate will soon catch up with the black market rate, and make the latter irrelevant.

While responding to a question by Mashonaland Central Senator Angeline Tongogara, who sought clarity on what the government was doing to blot out the alternative market, Ncube said:

What we have done so far is to complete the monetary policy reforms announced on February 22 and the introduction of the market-based exchange rate and designation of the RTGS dollar as local currency.

In the last few days, the exchange rate has gone up to 1:3 to the US$ and we have made sure that there is a market-based exchange rate whose behaviour approaches the black market, hoping that with time the black market will be eliminated.

I am sure as we trade in tobacco that the black market will diminish. We want to see a Zimbabwe which does not have a black market.-Newsday