HARARE – The Zimbabwe government on Wednesday unexpectedly repealed regulations forcing businesses to use the official exchange rate when selling their goods and services.
Large retailers had long complained that the regulations meant their US dollar prices were uncompetitive as consumers turned to the unregulated informal market.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, in a government gazette, issued Statutory Instrument 34 of 2025 repealing Statutory Instrument 81A of 2024.
The repealed law stated that “a natural or legal person shall be guilty of a civil infringement if he or she, being a seller of goods or services, offers such goods or services at an exchange rate above the prevailing average interbank foreign currency selling rate published by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.”
Penalties included fines.
Economist Tinashe Murapata said: “This could have been done earlier and avoided the mess in the retail sector. Goods smuggled from South Africa have reached an all time high while local manufacturers are on 50 percent capacity.”
