by Gift Mashoko

Citizens have received the tumbling of parallel market rates yesterday with much joy after they had sky-rocketed in the past week to 1:5.

With US$100 one could get $500 bond on the black market. That is how high the rates had gone. Yesterday the rate had plummeted to as low as $200 bond for US$100.

This came after Government through, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube secured a loan facility from the Afreximbank. This guarantees the 1:1 convertibility value of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) balances into the US dollar and the availability of the greenback for the Nostro foreign currency accounts

Citizens celebrated the tumbling rates with the MDC-T Vice President Obert Gutu and Alpha Media Chairman Trevor Ncube joining in the celebrations. They say people have been panicking but everything is under control and that the Daily news is causing panic in the country for no reason.

Gutu tweeted, “Parallel money market rates have tumbled and many people who had panicked and unwisely hoarded the United States dollar at exorbitant rates are in anguish right now! Ngatisango hakira hakira pazvinhu zvisana basa. Always use your head and not your heart when making key financial decisions!”

Ncube also tweeted, “The fact is rates were falling yesterday. The @DailyNewsZim has made terrible calls over the past two weeks and no apology,”

The dropping of rates is expected to continue as the rates control themselves with prices going back to normal in the shops.