The Zimbabwe dollar has further depreciated to ZW$65.87 to the United States dollar following the third foreign currency auction.

Last week it stood at ZW$63.74, from ZW$57.36 previously.

Yesterday’s auction saw a tighter range of bids compared to the first two auctions.

The numbers show that 120 bids were in the ZW$60 to ZW$70 range, which was were the weighted average rate established.

Non-Governmental Organisations, Bureaux de Change and several exporters made offers in that same range. One bidder made a bid of ZW$90 to the US dollar.

Applications submitted yesterday were down to 264 compared to 316 last Tuesday, while the total amount of bids declined from circa US$18 million to US$15.8 million while successful bids went down to US$13.6 million from about US$16 million last week.

Zimbabwe’s monetary authorities introduced the forex auction system last month, moving away from a pegged exchange rate of 25:1, in a move aimed to reign in the parallel market and contain inflationary pressures.