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Fradreck Gorwe, Business Reporter
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has said the monetary policy is a vital leg in Government’s economic recovery efforts without which fiscal efforts alone are rather inadequate. Monetary policy is how a central bank governs the supply of money and interest rates in an economy in order to influence output, employment and prices. On the contrary, fiscal policy entails the use of government revenue collection and expenditure to influence a country’s economy.
Responding to a question in Parliament on why as a matter of policy there are no efforts to demonetise the RTGS dollar and the bond note, and revert to dollarisation and the regime of multiple currencies, Minister Ncube argued that adoption of the US dollar crippled the crucial monetary leg by side-lining the central bank’s responsibilities, which is what the finance ministry has set out to rectify.
“What happened when the US dollar was adopted, basically as a de facto currency during the time that the Hon Member (Tendai Biti) was a minister, what he did is — he destroyed this country’s ability to conduct its own monetary policy completely. So, the central bank was taken out of all monetary policy ability and what was left was fiscal policy only,” he said.
ALL SHARE
The All Share index closed the week on a lower note shedding 3.05 points 1,60 percent to settle at 188.06 points. Beverage giant Delta lost $0,1507 to close at $3,6107, PPC eased $0,1012 to $1,8988 and Cassava Smartech closed at $1,7547 following a loss of $0,0889. Other losses were seen in Econet which dropped by $0,0851 to end at $1,7519 whilst First Mutual Holdings eased $0,0100 to trade at $0,1600.
Notable gains were seen in various counters including Old Mutual Limited which jumped up $0,9837 to close at $13,9926, FBC added $0,0505 to $0,5010 while Meikles was $0.0427 stronger at $0,8427. Innscor came off $0,0418 to trade at $2,1118 whereas Afdis improved by $0,0400 to settle at $1,7600.
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