Harare (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwean dollar depreciated by a marginal 0.4 percent against the greenback to $82.92 at Tuesday’s weekly auction as the local currency slowly establishes its true value, the central bank has said.
This is the ninth straight time the local unit has depreciated against the US dollar since it was floated at the end of June.
Last week, the Zimbabwe dollar traded at $82.56.
The official rate is still trailing the parallel market rate, now peaked at around $110.
At Tuesday’s trade, the highest rate on offer at the main auction was $88.38 while on the SMEs it was $85 while the lowest accepted rate was $80 and $78 respectively.
The central bank said it had allocated a combined US$14.2 million for both the main and small to medium enterprises auctions, which were for the second time held concurrently.
The bulk of the foreign currency at both auctions was allocated towards the purchase of raw materials for industry while machinery and equipment, fuel electricity and gas as well as consumables got a fair share of the funding.
Market watchers have lauded introduction of the foreign currency auction system which has helped stabilise prices of goods and services which in the past were driven by the unpredictable parallel market rate.
New Ziana
