Zimbabwe Eases Dollar Curbs, Lifts Rates to Boost Local Currency
- Policy rate, already world’s highest, raised to 150% from 140%
- Local currency plunges 30% at an auction held on Tuesday
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Zimbabwe liberalized its foreign-exchange market and raised interest rates, among a new raft of measures aimed at stabilizing the nation’s currency and reining in resurgent inflation.
The central bank will begin selling foreign currency at market-determined exchange rates through banks from Wednesday, the monetary policy committee said in a statement on Tuesday. The measure follows advice last month from the International Monetary Fund that the country remove restrictions on the exchange rate and after the Zimbabwean dollar fell 30% at an auction to 3,674 per dollar.