Price hikes in Zimbabwe pronounced as an indicator of the economy self dollarising by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube at Chatham House in London on Monday.
The announcement of the Monetary Policy together with the Fiscal Stabilisation Measures which among many other things highlighted the separation of the foreign currency accounts and the Real Time Gross Settlement accounts, has seen inflation going up and RTGS’s balances or bond notes being devalued on the parallel marketing despite the official rate of the bond being at par with the US dollar.
Professor Ncube said the market has decided on the values of the bond note and the US dollar and he won’t dispute or argue with that, although at some point the government will have to see how they can handle the current economic situation. ‘Inflation is high now because foreign currency is available on the black market. It is clear that at some point bond notes will have to be demonetised”, says Professor Ncube.