The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has directed banks to surrender their excess liquidity in return for Non-Negotiable Certificates of Deposit yielding zero (0) percent with effect from 4 June.
As a result of the development, players in the financial sector have sounded the alarm likening it to the expropriation of liquidity.
In the past, the central bank has dabbled in quasi-fiscal activities, with devastating consequences for economic stability.
With the 2023 general election drawing closer, the government will need massive funding.
This comes after the central bank a fortnight ago recorded a sharp decline in reserve money only to recover a fraction last week.
- Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe: Reserve Money Increase
- RBZ: Reserve Money In Sharp Decline
- DOWNLOAD: RBZ Update On Reserve Money – 30 April 2021
- Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe: Reserve Money Increase
- RBZ: Reserve Money Update As Of 23 April 2021
- DOWNLOAD: Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe Reserve Money Update -PDF
- RBZ Update On Reserve Money 6 October 2020
Commenting on the banks’ protests, George Charamba, a Press Secretary in the Office of President Emmerson Mnangagwa suggested that the banks were also not giving interest to depositors.
Responding to a post by The NewsHawks on Friday, Charamba said:
_You miss the glaring irony in this protest by banks??? What interest have they been giving depositors???? You can’t see that????_
Commenting on the same matter, one Tinashe Manyangadze @tinamanyangadze accused banks of “eating away depositors’ money purporting to be charging ‘bank charges.'”
This has all happened before because the banks are also implicit in the theft of your hard-earned money.