Carte Blanche with Perry

Notaphilists – people who study or collect paper money – are likely salivating and dusting their collections of Zimbabwe`s bank notes, as they prepare to add to their collections, yet another series of notes as the country`s uneasy relationship with its currency continues. The RBZ has announced a new series of ZWL$10 and ZWL$20 notes to start circulating in the economy, starting with the ZWL$10 note already in circulation, and the ZWL$20 note to come in the first week of June. Not only that, it has also announced the upward revision of withdrawal limits from ZWL$300 to ZWL$1,000 per week. Not that it is unclear to anyone, this revision in withdrawal limits to some measure portends the growing trouble the economy is facing. Hyperinflation. This then begs the question, why not just go for the jugular and issue say a ZWL$50 and a ZWL$100 note? Introduction into Circulation of $10 and $20 Dollar Banknotes pic.twitter.com/sv4kjDFtOa — Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (@ReserveBankZIM) May 15, 20...

Harare Central Business District The recent announcement of the country`s official inflation data carries quite some far reaching ramifications for the local economy. Zimstat announced the annual inflation figure for October at 20.85%, far above the SADC region`s benchmark of 7%.  This is the highest inflation figure since the country dollarized in early 2009. In the 9 months to September 2018, inflation had averaged 3.58% according to Zimstat`s own data, with the RBZ forecasting that annual inflation for 2018 would end the year well below the 7% threshold. However, October alone saw inflation gaining by 15.46 percentage points, significantly overshooting the central bank`s targets. There has been widespread discontent over the authenticity of the data from Zimstat itself.  OK Zimbabwe recently reported an average internal rate of inflation of 12.2%, while the controversial Steve Hanke an economist at the Johns Hopkins University who tracks trouble...

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries President, Busisa Moyo Reflecting on the meteoric rise of Sony Corporation shortly after its formation, co-founder Akio Morita wrote in his memoir Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony, “I believe one of the reasons we went through such a remarkable growth period was that we had this atmosphere of free discussion. We have never tried to stifle it.” It is worth mentioning that Sony was founded just after the end of the Second World War, against a backdrop of deep uncertainty, when Japan was starting to rebuilding its economy. Free discourse between Zimbabwe`s business sector and the government has broken down over the years. Numerous arrests, the hounding of business-people to the point of some even fleeing the country, and being branded as saboteurs has become something that local business-people are accustomed to.  These events hardly build trust and promote a healthy level of dialogue between government and the business community...

Zimbabwe Ministry of Finance Office Complex F or the outside observers, Zimbabwe’s economic environment is getting predictably unpredictable with each passing day. For a country that is seeking to woo, foreign investment, the recent actions by the monetary and fiscal authorities seem like a well-coordinated effort to do the exact opposite.  With virtually each action, the ministry of finance and the central bank officials increasingly appear to be a motley crew of amateurs experimenting with a loaded gun, leaving   nothing but a trail of destruction in their wake. The recent embarrassing debacle around the appointment of the controversial William Mutumanje, otherwise known as Acie Lumumba as the ministry of finance’s communications task force chair, and his subsequent sacking, as comical as it is, perhaps shows that Zimbabwe is not yet ready to be taken seriously in the global capital markets.  At a time when emerging markets themselves are in a st...