Harare, (New Ziana)-The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has dismissed calls to raise or scrap the foreign currency retention rate, insisting the existing 70:30 threshold is the most ideal, and warning that increasing it would accelerate dollarisation.
Speaking to Members of Parliament at the 2027 Pre-Budget Seminar held in Bulawayo last week, RBZ deputy governor Innocent Matshe said the policy will stay.
“Increasing the portion that exporters can keep in USD would encourage more dollarisation, the opposite to where we want to go,” he said.
Under the 70:30 rule, when an exporter sells US$100 worth of goods, they retain US$70 in forex while the remaining US$30 is sold to the RBZ at the interbank exchange rate and paid in the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG).
Exporters argue that with most key costs denominated in USD, the requirement amounts to an extra tax.
Matshe said the market has fully adjusted to current surrender levels.
“At best where we need to be is where we are right now. Where the market is fully adjusted to the levels of surrender. Business is represented here. The one thing that they have said to us that maybe they are not saying to Members of Parliament is that at this present moment they are comfortable with the surrender,” he said.
He also said there will be no rushed move to a mono-currency.
Matshe said the shift to exclusive use of ZiG will be guided by market conditions, not a fixed date, anchored on eight conditions including low single-digit inflation, adequate reserves, stable exchange rate dynamics and increased demand for ZiG.
