THE Zimbabwe dollar traded at 80 to the US greenback at Tuesday’s foreign exchange public sale as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced a second action targeting the small enterprise sector.
A weighted average rate of 80.46 was recorded Tuesday, up marginally from the 76.75 which was recorded last week.
According to a statement from the RBZ, 237 bids were made with the highest at 87 and the lowest at 78 with some US$18 million allotted compared to US$14 million last week.
The biggest allocation went to raw materials, at US$7.5 million, followed by machinery and equipment at US$4.5 million.
Meanwhile the central bank also announced that a second foreign currency auction would be held on Thursday mainly catering for the SME sector.
“The introduction of the SMEs foreign exchange auction system, is primarily meant to enable this sector to access foreign currency for the import of essential services and raw materials for their businesses,” the RBZ said in a statement.
“It had become clear that the SMEs sector had been crowded out of the foreign exchange space by big players.
“The foreign exchange auction system shall continue to be fine-tuned in order that it best serves the interests of the economy.”
