Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president Denford Mutashu has said his sector is not happy with the Minister of Finance’s measures to economic to restore macroeconomic stability in the country during a side interview with bhizimusi.com last week.
The retailers’ president said the huge sudden policy shift is a major challenge for the sector.
“All this while we were made to believe a lie, that’s what it means,” Mutashu said. “because we were told that the RGTS and the bond note are one as to one (1:1) to the US dollar but all of a sudden we wake up to a new normal where we are told that these are two different beds from the same nest.”
“Just as a sector, we are not happy with the measures especially with the separation of the accounts, which we believe before this the situation for us was a bit stable.”
Commenting on the Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s measures, the CZR boss said that there was no need to make wholesome changes which have obliterated business as a lot of shops are struggling especially those that rely on imports.
“So basically a lot of manufacturers have simply stopped supplying and a lot of service providers, truckers, transporters etc have simply asked us to pay in foreign currency,” Mutashu said.
“This is something we never anticipated and I think we underestimated the impacts that it was going to have on the economy that was seemingly stable.”
Zimbabwe has witnessed panic buying, basic commodity shortages and price hikes after Ncube’s announcement of macroeconomic stability measures.
The CZR president said the demand for foreign currency is too much against limited supply.
“The premiums on the parallel market have started going up and yet supply from the formal system, it is rather faced with so many competing issues,” Mutashu said.
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