Zimbabwe’s reserve money declined by 8.14% to ZW$16.12 billion as at 23 October 2020 from ZW$17.55 billion recorded during the previous week, the central bank has said.
Reserve money refers to currency in circulation plus commercial banks’ deposits with the central bank and other deposits to the same.
“The decline reflected a fall of ZW$1.5 billion in banks’ liquidity at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which was partially offset by increases in statutory reserves and other deposits at the central bank,” it said.
Banking sector deposits at RBZ fell by 9.25% from ZWL$15.34 billion as at 16 October 2020 to ZWL$13.92 billion as at week ending 23 October 2020. Bank’s RTGS liquidity went down to ZWL$12.31 billion as at 23 October 2020 from ZWL$13.85 billion in the previous week.
“The decline in banks’ liquidity was mainly due to foreign currency sales to the market by the RBZ and liquidity mopping through issuance of open market operations (OMO) savings bonds.”
