Zambia’s forex market operating within required values, says Central Bank

The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has said the country’s foreign exchange market is still deemed to be operating in a manner that is consistent with market values, evidenced by the absence of parallel structures such as the black market.

This was said by the Central bank Governor, Denny Kalyalya, at a media briefing in Lusaka to announce the Monetary Policy Rate for the first quarter of 2024 on Wednesday.

Kalyalya in his comment on the foreign exchange stressed that it was still deemed to be operating in a manner that was consistent with market principles in spite of the pressure in the market.

He recalled that a parallel market such as a black market in most cases emerged at times when the currency was having pressure.

According to Kalyalya, this development was not present in Zambia.

“When there is pressure on the currency, often times you see parallel market, others call it the black market, I would like to challenge you that if you are seeing the black market let us know because as far as we are aware we do not see any black market emerging.

“This shows that people are using normal channels and that is significant because in other settings, you see that black market is the order of the day, we had too sometime back, but not this time around,” he said.

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