By Davison Vandira
THE productive sector emerged the biggest beneficiary of forex payments from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) auction system for the first half of the year after accounting for more than US$3.7 billion.
The RBZ, driven by the spirit of transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, has released a comprehensive schedule of foreign currency payments for the first half of the year adding up to US$3.7 billion detailing the source and purpose of the transactions.
Foreign Currency Account balances were the main source of external payments providing a total of US$2.9 billion.
The RBZ auction system was the second source of forex with a total of 2 070 firms being allocated slightly more than US$740 million.
505 entities were from the main auction, while a massive 1 565 firms were drawn from the small to medium enterprises sector.
The Interbank Market is a distant third in the perking order, providing US$87 million.
The RBZ statistics, are in conformity with the improved industrial activity and productivity matrix as 72 percent of the total auction payments went towards raw materials, equipment, plant and machinery.
A quick analysis of the RBZ forex payment statistics indicates the country is manufacturing its own consumptive products, thereby boosting the domestication of value chains as the top 50 beneficiaries are largely food processing companies, while agriculture-related entities are also dominating the released schedule.
As economic activities continue to gather momentum post-COVID-19 and supply chains disturbances by Western Europe geopolitics, economists believe these statistics are critical in boosting confidence among key economic agents.
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