Story by Owen Mandovha, Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT is working on increasing civil servants salaries to cushion them from the devaluation of the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last week.
On a day that President Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered a State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the New Parliament Building, the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Professor Mthuli Ncube spoke on government’s position to cushion civil servants in the wake of the devaluation of the ZiG currency by the RBZ last week.
“We are alive to the impact of the devaluation of ZiG to wages and we as government need to review wages so as to restore buying power of ZiG,” said Professor Ncube.
Professor Ncube said they have also met retailers, assuring them that interventions made by Treasury will indeed restore stability.
“Last week’s interventions were necessary to eliminate speculative tendencies and also ensure viability of retailers,”
RBZ’s Monetary Policy Committee member, Mr Persistence Gwanyanya spoke on the President’s undertaking to stabilise the ZiG in his SONA.
He said, “The RBZ will continue to monitor the environment to ensure that it remains a functional currency and this is what the RBZ did last week to review the exchange rate.”
Last week, the RBZ devalued the ZiG currency to 24.39, made adjustments to the bank policy and cut foreign currency allowable for individuals to carry out of the country as part of measures to curb the depreciation of the local currency.
