Mnangagwa accuses banks of stashing forex

Zimbabwean banks – which include units of Nedbank, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered – are under fire after President Emerson Mnangagwa accused them of ‘stashing’ foreign currency for speculative street currency dealings, thereby fuelling high inflation through exchange rate distortions. A report on the Fin24 site notes that the country is struggling to secure foreign currency and has been unable to pay for key imports such as fuel and medicines. Government has previously blamed mobile money agents for driving the soaring street currency trade, which has driven up the parallel market rate for the Zimbabwe dollar to 1:60 compared to the official interbank rate of 1:25. Mnangagwa is demanding that finance institutions start to pay interest on Foreign Currency Accounts held by corporates and individuals. Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, said there was a ‘hierarchy of misdemeanours’ affecting the exchange rate and ‘price instability’ in the economy.

Full Fin24 report