The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe held its weekly foreign currency auction today, which saw the local currency maintain its appreciation trend against the US dollar after it gained 0.26% to 81.4965 from 81.7076 last week.
Raw Materials continued to be the biggest benefactor as they were allotted US$14 million, Machinery and Equipment US$5.9 million, Services at US$2.5 million, Consumables US$2.9 million, Retail and Distribution US$2.5 million. Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals, LPG Gas, Paper and Packaging and Fuel and Electricity also received amounts above US$1 million as all categories bid amounts above the benchmark
A record total of US$31.64 million was allotted to various sectors of the economy today up from last week’s US$21 million, with the main auction taking US$30.41 million and the SMEs taking US$1.23 million. The auction has now seen a total of US$184 million having been allotted in the last 14 weeks giving an average of US$52.66 million per month against an average of US$311 million export revenue per month in 2020.
The lowest rate was at $78 and the highest rate at $86.7. The difference between the highest and lowest bid has continued to narrow as it moved to 11.75% from 17.33% last week. The average weighted rate is now 6.00% lower than the highest bid from 7.15% last week due to continued lowering of the highest bid. Parallel market rate and average weighted rate difference reduced to 25.91% from 28.95% a week ago as the parallel market rate lowered this week.
Reserve money was up $671 million to $13.8 billion in the week to 11 September with the bank using $332 million to purchase foreign currency from exporters who are now voluntarily surrendering their proceeds to raise ZW$ liquidity.
On the parallel market, trades continue to come far and wide, as ZW$ liquidity continues to dry up.
The Zipit buying rate has moved down to 105 from 107 in the past day as well as the selling price for traders which has gone down to 110 for large amounts. Mobile money rates were quoted at 94-95 for both One Money and Ecocash transactions. Zipit lower amounts is currently at 100 per US$100.