BY FIDELITY MHLANGA
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has approved a $500 million facility for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMES) to stimulate economic growth.
In a statement yesterday, the RBZ said the facility would be accessed through various financial institutions.
This followed a meeting of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) last week, which agreed that the facility will carry a 30% interest rate.
“The MPC also made the following resolutions to support economic activity and the current stability in the economy: Maintaining the bank policy rate at 40% and the interest rate on the Medium Term Accommodation Facility (MBA) at 30% per annum,” central bank governor John Mangudya said.
“(The RBZ) approved a facility of ZW$500 million for term finance for micro, small and medium enterprises which the MSMEs will access from banks and micro-finance institutions at 30% per annum for purposes of enhancing production and productivity across all the sectors of the economy; and reaffirmed its position to support bureaux de change with foreign exchange requirements to support MSMEs which need foreign currency for their various productive requirements,” he added.
He said the committee noted with great satisfaction the reduction in inflation, which has further fallen from 240, 1% in March 2021 to 194% in April 2021.
“The committee reaffirmed its commitment to sustaining the disinflationary path to the end of the year and expects year-on-year inflation to go down to below 55% by July 2021,’’ he said.
