Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya who had vowed to resign if the bond notes failed has maintained that there is no basis for his resignation because the bond note did not fail.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee hearing Monday to discuss Zimbabwe Assurance Management company (ZAMCO) debts, government overdraft facility with RBZ and value of bond notes, Mangudya did not sway from his stance that the bond note did not fail.
He heaped the blame on excess government expenditure and said the surrogate currency (bond note) pushed up exports as it was initially designed to do.
“The bond note did not fail, it was an export incentive and it pushed exports.
“What failed is the economy, due to excess government expenditure. We now had excess funds in the economy and couldn’t maintain parity between the bond note and United States dollar,” he told the committee.
He also made startling revelations that the central bank was left with US$500 million in its reserves.
The committee was chaired by former finance minister Tendai Biti whose interrogation shook the central bank governor.
The Reserve Bank will return to answer to the same committee on March 11.
