RBZ Lowers Exporters' Forex Retention To 70%
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has lowered the foreign currency that exporters can keep from 75% to 70%.
This means exporters, like those in mining and agriculture, can now only keep 70% of their earnings in US dollars, with the rest paid in Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG).
Exporters had previously argued that keeping only 25% of their earnings in ZiG was like a tax, and they wanted to keep 85% of their earnings in US dollars to protect their businesses.
However, the RBZ Governor, John Mushayavanhu, decided to take a larger share of the foreign currency to help raise more US dollars and support the Zimbabwean dollar.
Mushayavanhu announced the decision when he presented the bank’s 2025 Monetary Policy Statement, on Thursday, 06 February. He said:
In order to guarantee continued stability in the interbank foreign exchange market through augmenting the supply of foreign currency, as well as building the critical foreign currency reserves needed to anchor the ZiG, the foreign currency retention level for exporters has been reduced from 75% to 70%, with immediate effect.
This implies that the effective surrender portion of export proceeds has been increased from 25% to 30%.
This review is consistent with the increased use of ZiG in the economy. The additional 5% will ensure that exporters mobilise sufficient ZiG to meet local currency obligations and other expenses, including tax payments, going forward.
Mushayavanhu said exporters concerned about losing value can deposit any excess ZiG into a special RBZ fund. They will be able to withdraw it at the official exchange rate whenever needed. He said:
In order to ensure preservation of value, exporters with no immediate use of the ZiG equivalent of the additional 5% of the export surrender proceeds will have an option to invest the funds in a USDDDF at the Reserve Bank which they can withdraw in ZiG on demand, at the prevailing interbank exchange rate on the settlement date.
However, this is unlikely to please exporters. Most of their costs, like buying materials and paying workers, are in US dollars.
So, when they only get 70% of their earnings in US dollars, they lose money. For large exporters, energy bills— their biggest expense—are also paid in US dollars.
