The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) allotted US$ 10.345 million to companies in various sectors on the opening day of the Foreign Exchange Auction System with the Zimbabwe dollar netting a weighted average rate of ZWL$ 57 against the America dollar.
Total bids amounted to US$ 11.407 million as companies’ response to the system was relatively reassuring as compared to the interbank foreign exchange market.
Manufacturers in need of foreign currency for raw materials were the biggest winners getting US$ 2.883 million followed by companies that needed the funds for procurement of machinery and equipment with US$ 2.407 million.
Bidders for food and beverages got an allotment of US$ 1.398 million with other sectors in services, consumables, portfolios investments, fuel, electricity and gas, chemicals, livestock and medicals also accessing foreign currency.
The Central bank introduced the Foreign Exchange Auction System to determine the Zimbabwe dollar exchange rate with focus on enhancing transparency and efficient distribution of scarce foreign currency.
The system works under the Reuters Foreign Exchange Trading platform, a real-time electronic trading system.
The weekly auctions will sell excess foreign currency from exporters that will not have been used after the 30 day retention period, offshore lines of credit arranged by the RBZ and surrender portion of export earnings.
