Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter
THE official exchange rate at the forex auction system moved to US$1:$142,4 on Tuesday from US$1 to $138,2 last week.
There is, however, a huge margin between the official exchange rate and the parallel market rate, which is hovering around US$1:Z$200 and above, amid calls to finetune the auction system to narrow the difference.
In its latest weekly update, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said a total of US$37,6 million was allotted to all bids compared to US$36,8 million last week.
The main auction was allotted US$31,1 million while small and medium enterprises (SMEs) got US$6,5 million.
Since establishment of the platform in June 2020, the bulk of the foreign currency has been allotted towards the procurement of raw material, machinery and equipment.
This week a total of US$14,5 million was allotted towards procurement of raw material by both the main auction and the SMEs auctions.
Also, US$10,1 million was allotted towards machinery and equipment. The remainder of the funding has been allotted towards sourcing of consumables like tyres, electricals as well as facilitating services such as loans, education, dividends and disinvestments.
The main auction received 449 bids and 413 were accepted while the SMEs auction received 1159 bids and 1085 were accepted.
During the first two months of 2022, RBZ indicated that, about US$218,4 million was allocated to the productive sector taking the cumulative amount since its introduction to US$2,8 billion. — @SikhulekelaniM1
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