Published: 17 February 2015

Lending rates at commercial banks for individuals and corporate clients declined from 14.16 percent to 14.08 percent and 9.66 percent to 9.47 percent respectively.

Weighted lending rates at merchant banks for individuals and corporate clients remained unchanged at 19 percent and 18 percent respectively.

The central bank and the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe have been working at normalising bank charges and interest rate following complaints that the country has one of the highest rates in the region.

In his monetary policy statement, RBZ govenor John Mangudya said most banks had reduced interest rates for their performing customers to below 10 percent. The total value of transactions processed through the National Payment System (NPS) in the week ending February 6, 2015 declined to US$1,031 billion, down from US$1,162 billion, recorded during the previous week due to a decline in transactions processed through the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system. Latest figures from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe show that RTGS transaction went down 23 percent from US$984 million in the previous week to US$761 million, during the week under review.

In terms of proportions, RTGS payments accounted for 73.81 percent of the total value of transactions processed through the NPS, followed by Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at 10.58 percent.

Mobile transactions accounted for 9.61 percent of total value of transactions while Point of Sale (POS) transactions were 5.63 percent and cheque transactions, 0.37%.

In volume terms, mobile-based transactions accounted for 82.96 percent of total NPS transactions, followed by ATMs at 8.22 percent, POS at 7.81 percent, RTGS at 0.85 percent and cheque transactions at 0.17 percent.

The average deposit rates for savings and 1 month tenor closed the week flat at last week's rate of 3.31 percent and 9.37 percent respectively.

Deposits of a 3 month tenor however declined to 10.99 percent from 11.00 percent in the previous week.
- BH24 - Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

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