FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube yesterday said the introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar was timely as the country has registered macro-economic fundamentals that will promote stability of the local currency.

Speaking during a Mid-Term budget review breakfast meeting in Bulawayo, Prof Ncube said as highlighted in the Mid-Term fiscal policy statement, there was a host of positive macro-economic fundamentals supporting the introduction of the local currency.

Such fundamentals, he said, included the reduction in current domestic debt and fiscal deficit and suspension of Treasury Bills issuance.

Underpinned by the above positive macro-economic fundamentals, Prof Ncube said the introduction of a local currency was timely.

“We have closed the twin deficit (current account deficit and fiscal deficit) and that’s very important. I am always asked that Minister was it the right time to introduce the Zimbabwe dollar? The answer is yes, I repeat the answer is yes.

“We cannot introduce a stable domestic currency if you are running a large budget deficit and an alarmingly large current account deficit . . . so, this position is ideal for managing a stable domestic currency,” he said.

Zimbabwe re-introduced the local currency as a sole legal tender towards the end of June this year through the promulgation of Statutory Instrument 142 of 2019 to bring back normalcy in the economy as the monetary authorities noted a cocktail of challenges that were caused by the adoption of a multicurrency regime.

Such challenges included financial distortions in the formal market that were caused by the parallel market.State media