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Taurai Mangudhla
The value of transactions on Zimbabwe’s national payment systems slumped by approximately 33,3 percent in October 2017 to close the month at $6,6 billion, down from $9,9 billion in September, latest statistics show. Real Time Gross Settlements (RTGS) continues dominating the modes of payments, accounting for as much as 81 percent of the total transaction with a value of $5,4 billion in October and 73,7 percent of transactions with a value of 7,3 billion in September, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s weekly reports.

This comes as more Zimbabweans adopt electronic modes of payment in light of cash shortages that are emanating from dwindling foreign challenges. In terms of the volumes of transactions, October registered an average of 90 million transactions, down from 119,9 million transactions the previous month. October had four weeks while September had five weeks, based on the RBZ’s weekly reporting system which releases a report each Friday.

Mobile transactions in value terms peaked to 18,81 percent of total transactions in the second week of October. In the two months under review, mobile transaction were lowest in the final week of September at 14,8 percent. Point of sale (POS) transactions stood between 9,9 percent and 12,8 percent of the total value of transaction in the two months under review. Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions peaked to a mere 0,6 percent of transactions in the fourth week of October and hit a periodical low of 0,19 percent in the final week of September. Cheque transaction value constituted 0,05 percent to 0,07 percent of transactions in the period under review.

According to a weekly report for the first week of November, ending on 3 November, average deposit rates for savings deposits remained unchanged at 4,22 percent. Deposit rates for deposits of one-month tenor declined by 0,01 percentage points to close the week under review at 4,02 percent. The week under review also saw average deposits rates for deposits of three months tenor increase from 4, 09 percent in the previous week, to close the week at 4, 14 percent.

“Weighted lending rates at commercial banks remained unchanged at 9, 66 percent for individual clients, during the week under review. The lending rates for corporate clients, however, decreased by 0,01 percentage points to close at 7,05 percent, during the week under analysis,” said the central bank