HARARE – The broke Zimbabwe government is curtailing foreign trips and banning workshops by government agencies as it faces an end-of-year cash squeeze.
Finance secretary George Guvamatanga said the ministry was also ordering a 50 percent reduction in fuel allocations to ministries and government departments.
In a letter to all accounting officers dated November 13, Guvamatanga said there was a “substantial imbalance” between government receipts and expenditure.
“As you maybe aware, the local currency unit ZwG recently depreciated by 43 percent against the United States dollar resulting in a substantial mismatch between revenue inflows, collected in some cases with a one-month lag, and local currency expenditures that immediately adjusted to the new exchange rate, in the process severely constraining fiscal space for the last quarter of 2024,” Guvamatanga wrote.
He said the payment of bonuses to civil servants, food aid and support for farmers through inputs would be prioritised while non-wage support for ministries and government departments will be “severely constrained.”
With immediate effect, Guvamatanga said treasury approval would only be granted for foreign trips funded independent of state coffers.
He also ordered a “deferment of all local workshops with the exception of those granted prior approval by treasury.”
There would also be “rationalisation of fuel for operational requirements by 50 percent,” Guvamatanga said.
Zimbabwe’s central bank allowed the local gold-backed currency to fall over 40 percent in late September, to 24.3902 to the U.S. dollar. The currency has since fallen further, to 25.2842 to the dollar as of Monday, according to the central bank’s website.
The ZiG, which stands for Zimbabwe Gold, is Zimbabwe’s sixth attempt at a stable currency in 15 years. It was launched in April.
