Govt speaks on cash withdrawal limit

Harare,(New Ziana) – Government will carefully look at the obtaining situation in the economy regarding cash accessibility with a view to progressively lift the $300 weekly withdrawal limit imposed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ),Parliament heard on Wednesday.

With the central bank having started injecting new Zimbabwe dollar notes into the market on Tuesday, depositors have complained about the withdrawal limit which many have felt was now too low, as the currency has lost its value since the thresholds were set years ago due to inflation.

Some banks have even imposed their own limits lower than the RBZ’s $300.
This is the first time in over 10 years the country has had its currency as it has been using a pseudo-currency in the form of bond notes, in the past four years.

The issue of withdrawal limits hogged the limelight in Parliament as
legislators asked government to make its position known on the matter.

Leader of government business in the National Assembly, Justice Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi said it would be naïve of authorities to simply rush to remove the limit.

“We are in a transitional period. We moved from the use of the US dollar and we introduced our currency and we had a cash cover of only the bond notes that were there, hence the need to ensure that we have a cap on withdrawals,” Ziyambi told the National Assembly.

“Fairly recently, we have deliberately decided to inject cash into the market so as we start injecting that cash, we cannot just open up, we
have to monitor so that we limit the inflationary pressures on our
economy.”

He added: “It is something that the government will look into progressively but the good thing is that cash is now being injected into the economy and the situation will improve progressively.”

The central bank has said it injected over $30 million into the market, and will continue drip-feeding the new notes until the year over a billion dollars or up to about a 10th of total deposits.

Zimbabweans had over the years endured cash shortages as the central bank uncharacteristically kept cash in circulation very low compared to what is done in other economies.

The shortages of cash gave birth to multi-pricing in the economy as well as a thriving bank note selling business as some operators such as transport operators preferred to transact in cash only.
New Ziana