RTGS Dollar legal instrument now in force

The government has released Statutory Instrument 133 of 2019 to include the recently introduced RTGS electronic money or dollars into the multi currency basket.

The move follows Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr John Mangudya's floating the RTGS dollars against the United States dollar by creating an interbank forex trading market.

An economist, Mr John Robertson said the release of the Statutory Instrument, which was made almost a day after the announcement of the 2019 Monetary Policy Statement, is likely to increase confidence in the capital or financial markets.

"We are hopeful that such a move will also have a positive impact over the manner in which we can continue to operate in the country," he said.

Another economist, Professor Ashock Chakravarti said with interbank forex market now in place, effects of the new developments on the capital markets will only be realised after almost a month.

"We just need that part where we can continue to progress at that rate that can unlock value of returns thereby increasing the value of the money for the people," he added.

The anticipated stabilisation of the exchange rate following the Monetary Policy Statement announcement is expected to preserve the value of people's savings in their bank accounts.