Zimbabwe Banks Said to Trade $7.7 Million on Interbank Market

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean banks traded $7.7 million since the central bank effectively created a new currency that’s its allowing to be bought and sold on an interbank market, a person familiar with the matter said.

The amount is part of an initial allocation of $25 million that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is providing to commercial banks to trade, the person said, declining to be identified because the information isn’t public.

The central bank last week created the RTGS dollar by merging its so-called bond notes and their electronic equivalent. It then allowed the securities to trade at a rate determined by the interbank market rather than insisting the securities had parity with the dollar.

The new currency traded at 2.5005 to the dollar on the interbank market yesterday, according to central bank data. Bond notes traded at 3.31 to the dollar on the black market, according to marketwatch.co.zw, a website run by Zimbabwean financial analysts. The rate has strengthened in recent days.

Source: Bloomberg Business News