HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb 8 – Zimbabwe recorded its highest ever foreign currency receipts of 9.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up by 53.5 percent from a year earlier, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said on Monday.
In the 2022 monetary policy statement, John Mangudya, governor of the RBZ, said the national record was buoyed by increased international commodity prices, international remittances and the gold incentives put in place by the government.
In the statement, Mangudya noted that export proceeds in 2021 contributed 6.194 billion dollars to the bulk of the receipts, followed by Diaspora remittances with 2.405 billion dollars and loan proceeds which contributed 876.06 million dollars.
In the terms of foreign payment’s performance, the statement said for the year of 2021, banks processed foreign payments amounting to 6.99 billion dollars, up by 45.2 percent from the previous year.
“The upward trajectory in foreign payments was largely on account of increased foreign currency supply from the auction system and exports, consistent with the increased capacity utilization in industry,” Mangudya said.
