Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) deputy governor Kupikile Mlambo has claimed that the current foreign currency challenges started in 1965 when the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith started an import substitution program.
Said Mlambo while addressing a Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers Indaba,
The shortage of cash is a shortage of foreign exchange it has a historical context that begins in the 1960s. Then authorities decided to industrialize by replacing imports, while it worked it did not generate sufficient foreign currency to bring in essential raw materials
Mlambo also said that the RBZ was not going to adopt the South African Rand as the anchor currency.
Our problems are of a structural nature and whatever currency we adopt is foreign currency, the point CZI miss is that we don’t have enough foreign currency and that is our problem since the 1960s we need to export more. Secondly we are uncompetitive on the regional markets as our cost structures are high.
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