By Stanley James
The opening up of the economy has seen an increase in demand for foreign currency, with more than 37 million United States dollars being allocated to firms at the weekly auction this Tuesday.
The move saw the exchange rate rising marginally and trading at 83, 98 to the United States dollar, according to information released after the auction.
As industry seeks to scale up production, most of the funds were given to producers of basic goods.
However, large companies were the biggest beneficiaries of foreign currency with the SMEs sector having its own share in terms of foreign currency allocations.
The central bank information shows that raw materials accounted for the bulk of the foreign currency given to productive sectors.
Machinery and equipment were second, followed by consumables, services, retail and distribution.
Other beneficiaries of hard cash at the auction were fuel, electricity and gas as well as paper and packaging sectors.
The post Foreign currency demand up as business sector reopens appeared first on ZBC NEWS.