In an interview with The Herald, Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Denford Mutashu said the recent announcements by Finance Minister Mtuli Ncube resulted in price increases.
Mutashu said Ncube did not make the announcement properly because the Finance Minister signaled that he was phasing out the Bond Note but did not offer an exit strategy. Below is an excerpt of the interview:
EZ: So in your view what could have triggered the recent wave of price increases?
DM: It’s not far off from the apple tree. The apple has not fallen far from the tree. The recent announcement by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Prof Mthuli Ncube, especially the first point was the announcement towards decimating the bond note. I don’t think it was done appropriately, if I may call that, or if it was supposed to have been done so publicly, because it caused jitters in the economy, jitters in the minds of consumers, jitters in the mind of business. Because the moment that you want to exterminate/decimate a surrogate currency, you certainly need to have a backup plan. So we want an exit strategy.
The moment you touch on the bond note, the moment you devalue the RTGS balance by speaking to the issues of separation of the FCA nostro from FCA RTGS, and speak about ring-fencing, because the moment you speak about ring-fencing, you are simply saying that the incoming hard currency may be contaminated by the RTGS balance or bond note. So what does it say about that currency.
More: Herald