Zimbabwe has suspended its stock market operations and all monetary transactions by mobile phone.
National Stock Exchange chief executive Justin Bgoni said in a statement on Sunday that trading is on hold until further notice.
The move comes as a result of speculation that the government says precipitated the fall of the Zimbabwean dollar, ushering in another episode of the country’s endless economic downturn.
This prompted the state to announce a series of measures intended to “deal with embezzlement, crime and economic sabotage”.
The decision to suspend mobile payments will severely affect the economy, experts say. Mobile money is widely used as a payment method for goods and services.
And according to central bank data, more than 80% of all transactions are made over the phone due to a shortage of notes.
“Reopen quickly”
“This is one more blow to the economy, the consequences of which no one can predict in the long term,” said Prof Tony Hawkins, economist at the University of Zimbabwe, “It will cause uncertainty and affect negatively investor confidence ”.
“Not opening the purse is dangerous, they must reopen it quickly,” said Dhlela.
The suspension of telephone transactions, which have become the main means of payment in shops due to the scarcity of cash, prompted mixed comments on Monday in the streets of the capital.
The agents who lived on these services “will be left without a source of income”, noted at theAFP Harare resident Beavan Chirime.
“We ordinary people have nothing to lose” with this suspension, noted another, Wright Chirombe. “Some of these agents were linked to the bourgeoisie and took advantage of it to invest large sums of money in illegal currency transactions.”
Annual inflation has peaked at 785.6%, according to the latest official statistics.
“Political critics”
Last Wednesday, the price of fuel at the pump soared by almost 150%.
Combined with recurrent drought for several seasons, the return of hyperinflation has placed half of the country’s 15 million inhabitants in food insecurity, according to theHIM-HER-IT.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeded Robert Mugabe, in power for thirty-seven years, in 2017, pledging to revive the economic machine. His promises have not been kept.
In a recent speech to officials of the ruling party, Mnangagwa also accused “political detractors” whom he did not name, accusing them of a “harmful project”.
The outlook for the Zimbabwean economy was further clouded with the Covid-19 pandemic. The World Bank is already counting on a 10% contraction in gross domestic product (START) in 2020.
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