News, Rumors and Opinions Sunday AM 5-8-2022
‘West met their match in Putin.’ Zim president to copy Russia’s currency strategy
Ray Ndlovu 02 May
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa is trying to emulate Russian President Vladimir Putin in his attempt to revive Africa’s worst performing currency.
Mnangagwa’s administration may announce plans as early as this week for government departments in Zimbabwe — under US sanctions for economic mismanagement and human rights violations for the past two decades — to show “high preference” for the Zimbabwe dollar in the payment of services, according to Persistence Gwanyanya, a Harare-based economist and member of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Monetary Policy Committee.
“We are going to see a significant shift by government toward our own currency,” Gwanyanya said Sunday in an interview by phone. “We are drawing lessons from Russia, one of those is that heavy dependence on US dollars is not good. We want to try and reflect some of these geo-political issues in our local economy.”
Russia’s attempts to bolster the rouble by demanding payment for gas and oil in its own currency along with strict capital controls has sheltered the rouble. Putin resorted to the measure because of heavy sanctions for his war in Ukraine. But Zimbabwe’s attempts to shake off its dependence on the US dollar may be tougher. Greenbacks are used to pay for almost everything from food to fuel, medicines and road tolls. Workers including teachers and bank employees have since the start of this year demanded salaries in US dollars to meet living costs pegged in foreign currency.
Zimbabwe had a trade deficit of $1.2 billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a $203 billion surplus for Russia in the same period
Even Mnangagwa’s government has previously come under criticism for undermining its own currency in favour of the US dollar, paying its workers their bonuses in foreign currency last year.
Under the new measures, payment using local currency will increase for services including obtaining passports, paying import duties and taxes. Agreement has already been reached with Treasury, Gwanyanya said. The local currency officially trades at 159.34 per US dollar and has lost a third of its value this year. In the parallel market it sells at 400 per US dollar.
“The Western powers have met their match in Putin, who is demanding payment for gas and oil in roubles,” Mnangagwa said last month. “So now, we are saying to our industrialists, all these big companies, any investor that comes in here must buy using the Zimbabwean dollar.”
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Frank26 The ISO was to put the IQD in a position to go international. For trading International. To pay their bills in their own currency. To deal with cross-border payments. This is huge. It's a platform to go international. This is the window for the IQD to go outside of its borders and float. Or fix it. I don't care you can do whatever you want now...They're going to float it in my opinion.
Deepwoodz [Response to Newshound Guru Militiaman below ] Imo…Same wavelength… An independent bloc announces its acceptance of al-Sadr's initiative to form a "national" government. Article reference "Al-Khafaji said that "contacts took place yesterday between 35 independent deputies" Last time they had a quorum of about 200 if I’m not mistaken. If 35 were added then…… :)
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KTFA:
Clare: Technical Adviser to the Prime Minister: The emergency support bill needs one parliamentary session to pass
Baghdad / NINA / - The technical advisor to the Prime Minister, Haitham Al-Jubouri, confirmed that the emergency support bill needs one session for Parliament to pass.
Al-Jubouri said in a televised statement: "35 percent of the emergency support is allocated to strategic food storage, adding that 30 percent of the emergency support funds are allocated to projects and infrastructure."
And he indicated, that the government is ready to present the budget if Parliament delays it. LINK
Iraqi Dinar update for 05/08/22 - invest more into infrastructure
Pimpy’s Investment Chat :
Mom - (Mother's Day) (Home Free Cover)