Zimbabwe’s official foreign currency rate continues to strengthen, albeit marginally in recent weeks.
This week, the Zimbabwe dollar gained 0.1 percent to 81.34 from 81.44 previously.
gainedappears to have found its range, edging down slightly by 0,1 percent to 81, 34 in yesterday’s Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) foreign currency auction.
The highest level since the auction began is 83.39, which was set on August 25.
The local currency, which was introduced in June 2019 has continued to strengthen in the six weeks from the current one.
For this week’s auction, the highest bidder on the main auction offered $87, while the lowest accepted bid stood at 79.
And on the SMEs part of the auction the highest offered was $86, while the lowest accepted bid was also 79, reflecting a further tightening of the bid range.
The auction’s overall foreign currency allocation this week jumped to US$26.12 million, up from last week’s US$24.5 million.
The big firms were allocated US$24.69 million, while smaller businesses received a total of US$1.43 million.
The main auction saw 193 successful bidders allocated the US$24.69 million with another 35 bids disqualified. On the SMEs board, 114 valid bidders received the total of US$1.43 million with another 21 disqualified.
The central bank said bids that were not eligible in terms of the priority list were disqualified; while bids with overdue CDIs, outstanding Bills of Entry and those with sufficient FCA (foreign currency accounts) balances were also disqualified.
The foreign currency auction system has brought significant levels of price stability in the country, although some speculative market tendencies remain.