AUTHORITIES say the move to quarantine the over US$100 million outstanding Dutch foreign currency auction system payments is meant to stabilise the foreign exchange and prices of basic commodities.
The operations of the auction system were suspended late last year. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) made a decision that the outstanding payments would be housed for two years before payment in local currency.
RBZ governor John Mushayavanhu said for the country’s new currency, the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), to remain stable, the central bank saw it prudent to freeze the payments