Zimbabwe’s central bank has secured a $500 million loan from unspecified international banks to support interbank Currency trading and ease a dollar crunch that has brought fuel and medicine shortages.
This was confirmed by Governor John Mangudya who released a statement saying that the central bank would start accessing the $500 million from Monday “to meet the forex payment requirements of business and individuals”.
“This amount shall go a long way to stabilise the exchange rates and prices of goods and services in the economy,” said Mangudya
Although Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube also tweeted that the loan had been secured from international banks, he did not disclose the names of the banks.
The US$500 million new facility raised from international banks will increase the supply of foreign currency for imports, for industry and other sectors. https://t.co/RY3wAKfYTR
— Prof. Mthuli Ncube (@MthuliNcube) May 18, 2019
Zimbabwe has not received funding from international lenders such as the IMF and World Bank since it defaulted on its loan repayments in 1999, and a dollar crunch has worsened this year, leading to shortages of fuel and medicines.The country has largely relied on the African Export and Import Bank (Afrexim Bank) for foreign loans by mortgaging future gold export earnings.
