Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe has refuted reports of introducing exchange controls to arrest the Kwacha slide.
Ms Mwanakatwe said Government has received reports that some unscrupulous persons are taking advantage of recent challenges in the local foreign exchange market to spread false information.
She said these people are implying that exchange controls are about to be re-introduced in Zambia and that foreign currency accounts held in our banking system will be converted into Kwacha.
I want to state that these insinuations do not represent the longstanding policy of the Government of the Republic of Zambia. In addition, I wish to assure both local and foreign investors, businesses, and the general public and categorically state that *The Government is not about to and will not re-introduce exchange controls.* To the contrary, the Government remains committed to maintaining the current flexible exchange rate regime,” she said.
Ms mwanakatwe said looking back to the 1980s and 1990s, the nation will recall the painful experience that Zambia endured due to exchange controls.
She said the nation resolved to do away with exchange controls as they did not resolve the underlying challenges faced by the economy then, but made things worse.
Ms Mwanakatwe said diversification of the economy, particularly the export sector, is one way of strengthening domestic and external sector performance, sustainably.
She said that the Bank of Zambia manages the Government’s exchange rate policy in the context of its overall objective of maintaining price and financial system stability.
“The Bank of Zambia will hold its quarterly monetary policy meeting this week and will be having a media briefing on Wednesday May 22, 2019. A detailed assessment of recent developments in the foreign exchange market as well as monetary policy developments will then be provided to members of the public at that time.
“I take this opportunity to appeal to my fellow citizens and friends of Zambia to be on high alert and help curb mis-information. The practice harms the less privileged due to the propensity of falsehoods to impair the social-economic progress of the country,” she said.
