Browsing: Doing Business in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s decades old inflation has been worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war. Inflation in Zimbabwe remains one of the highest globally and the only country in Southern Africa with headline inflation above 50 per cent.

Prior to the war, rising inflation in Zimbabwe, low foreign direct investments, unsustainable foreign debt levels and corruption were among a plethora of problems plaguing Zimbabwe’s economy.

Zimbabwe’s economic problems started surfacing in 1997 when the regime of the late Robert Mugabe paid unbudgeted pensions to veterans of the country’s 1970s liberation war, leading to a currency collapse. The situation got worse in 1999 when Zimbabwe sent its troops to fight in Democratic Republic of Congo civil war that also drew armies from Uganda, Rwanda and Angola. A violent land reform programme that displaced nearly 5,000 commercial farmers, precipitating the crisis. Disputed elections and human rights violations led to the country’s economic isolation, which has taken …

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) are a reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to supplement its member countries’ reserves.

According to the IMF’s website, a total equal to US$943 billion in SDRs has been allocated to date from the time they were created in 1969. This figure is inclusive of the SDR456 billion approved on the 2nd of August 2021. This most recent allocation was made necessary by the need to help countries around the world to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of the SDR is based on a basket of five currencies which include: the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound. …

Victoria Falls Stock Exchange

Zimbabwe’s newest stock exchange, The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange will open its doors to trading on Monday 26 October 2020. The VFEX will trade in foreign currency only. 

The exchange will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, with reports indicating that there are plans to bring in an equity partner.

The launch and official opening to be graced by Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development, former AfDB Vice-President Professor Mthuli Ncube is set to take place this Friday.

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange experienced a hiatus from trading as instructed by the Finance ministry in a crackdown on parallel market activity earlier this year. It was to open its floors a month later but in the absence of fungible counters. The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange is therefore expected to start off trading with the fungible counters that were suspended from trading on …