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Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter

THE Zimbabwean dollar further weakened against the United States dollar at the weekly forex auction system on Tuesday where it traded at Z$120,5 to the green back.

According to an update by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) after this week’s auction, a total of US$37,2 million was allotted and this shows that the allotted amount remains stable as last week’s auction received same as this week.

At this week’s auction, the main auction was allotted US$29,6 million and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) US$7,6 million.

As has been the tradition, much of the foreign currency was allotted to the procurement of raw material, machinery and equipment.

A total of US$25,5 which is 65,5 of the foreign currency went to the procurement of raw material and US$9,4 million went to the procurement of machinery and equipment by both the main and the SMEs auction.

The main auction received 546 bids and 468 was accepted whilst the SMEs auction received 943 bids and 844 were accepted.

In a report by RBZ on a monthly update of the forex auction, 1598 entities have benefited US$69,6 million from the January 2022 auction system.

The auction system continues to provide affordable and easily accessible foreign currency to the productive sector in a bid to reduce production cost and promote industrial growth as this reduces sourcing of forex from the illegal forex market, which manipulate exchange rates.

-@SikhulekelaniM1