Story by Stanley James, Business Editor
ZIMBABWE’s thrust to improve currency and price stability continues to gain traction as foreign currency reserves backing the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) have increased to over US$600 million.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) revealed that by the end of March 2025, the country’s foreign currency reserves had risen to over US$600 million, a significant increase from approximately US$270 million recorded at the end of April last year.
The central bank confirmed that the current reserve levels are sufficient to fully cover ZiG bank deposits, providing a critical buffer for the local currency against foreign currency volatility.
Analysts have described the foreign currency reserves build-up as important in increasing market confidence in the domestic currency.
“The steady growth in the reserves marks a huge milestone in the domestic structured currency following its launch in April last year, it also reflects how the central bank is walking the talk in terms of accumulating more reserves to anchor the local currency in line with the depolarisation initiative, taking into account the strides in overall stability it means they as monetary authorities are also staying the course of prudent systems to anchor the currency through stability,” the Executive Dean Faculty of Commerce at the Bindura University of Science Education, Dr Zachary Tambudzai said.
“Industry is all about certainty so a stable currency which gives direction for future planning is of greater importance, the current trend reflects that the tight monetary policy is yielding its results while some may not be of that agenda keeping it tight is one of the promises made by the central bank in maintaining stability, so step by step the authorities are doing what is best for the future of the economy,” president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Mr Mucha Mukanganwi said.
The central bank has revealed that Zimbabwe’s exchange rate has been relatively stable since October last year driven by the growth in reserves.
It also revealed that exchange rate premiums have also been narrowed from over 100 % in September last year to 20 % in March this year, as reflected by stable parallel markets rates hovering between 33 and 34 ZiG per United States Dollar.
