Frequently Asked Questions

Quick tips

  • Use the chart toolbar to pan (drag) and zoom (mouse wheel or +/–).
  • The Converter lets you swap currencies and uses ZiG as a pivot.
  • Official vs Free Market are shown side-by-side where relevant.
Where do the official ZiG exchange rates come from?▾

From the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) daily publications (Mon–Fri). We ingest the PDF, parse the table, and store it, including Bid, Ask and Mid when available.

What is the “Free Market” rate?▾

It is a user-supplied benchmark you can set on the Admin page to reflect informal market conditions. It is kept separate from the official RBZ rate.

Why is there no new rate on weekends or holidays?▾

RBZ only publishes Monday–Friday. On weekends/holidays the site shows the last available business day (typically Friday).

Why does the Converter show a derived rate?▾

When RBZ Mid is missing, we derive it from Bid/Ask (average) or fall back to whichever side is present. The Converter uses ZiG as a pivot for cross-currency conversions.

How often is the site updated?▾

The ingestion job runs daily at 10:00 CAT.

Which currencies are supported?▾

USD, ZAR, EUR, GBP, CNY and others included in RBZ tables. The dropdowns auto-populate from the database.

Does the site work on low data or slow networks?▾

Yes. The UI is optimized for small payloads and progressive loading. Charts fetch compact time series and cache results briefly.