In Bujumbura, 15 foreign currency exchange offices have been closed and 12 agents of change your arrested in recent days, according to the spokesman of the police. The reason? They do not respect the official rate set by the central bank to 1 600 francs for 1 dollar so that in the street, the dollar is trading between 2700 and 2800 francs due to a very strong Request and the shortage of foreign exchange. The Central Bank of burundi accuses currency traders to speculate on the currency and thus to be at the origin of the increase in price.
Close of business of exchange and arrest of agents, the measure is for the less drastic.
Last month, the central bank of burundi had already summoned currency traders accused to speculate on the currency and being as well as to the origin of the increase in prices. But nothing to do: the dollar and the euro are too rare in burundi and so we need to get the price in order to have some on the black market.
If its foreign exchange is scarce is that the money has dried up: the main was external aid of western countries. But most have closed the faucet in response to the crisis, following the example of the European Union. Then the country imports a lot more than it exports. And finally, the violence did flee investors as well as the latest foreign tourists.
The country needs that money to pay its officials, its imports and especially. To prevent its currency will lose even more of its value.
A measure ” desperate ” according to an observer of the burundian economy which will only have ” little impact on the increase in prices and seeks primarily to keep his hands on the little bit of foreign currencies that circulates again in burundi “.
Since the end of 2015 All Ngos who receive funds westerners must drop them off at the central bank and the importers of products deemed non-strategic cannot have more than 50 $ 000 per year.
Criminal Paul Kagame
