Zimbabwe’s central bank has floated ZWL$300 million worth of Treasury Bills to “finance Government programmes.”
This is in addition to ZWL$190 million that has been raised over the past two months through Treasury Bills (TBs) auctions for the same purposes.
It however begs the question where are Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube’s famous ‘surpluses’?
“Government is solvent, we are running surpluses and we have been doing average surpluses of $100 million since September last year when we came in,” said the FM earlier this year.
“In January we had surplus of $102 million, February $85,5 million as we had to take into account cushioning of civil servants.
“In March, our surplus doubled to be just about $200 million.”
Economic observers are concerned that the increasing issuances of TBs will further impel inflationary pressures and worsen prevailing macro-economic instability.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) hereby invites financial institutions including commercial banks, building societies, POSB and IDBZ, to subscribe to treasury bills amounting to three hundred million dollars,” said the central bank in the latest float of the 365-day TBs.
The TBs have an “open tender on a yield basis” interest rate and other special features which include prescribed and liquid asset status, tax exemption and acceptability as collateral for overnight accommodation at the central bank.
Last year, the Zimbabwean Government placed a moratorium on the issuances of TBs last year after unrestricted issuances drove up both Government debt and money supply growth.