(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe’s attempt to close a wide gap between its official and black-market exchange appears to be failing.

The southern African nation effectively devalued its currency, known as RTGS$, in February when it ended a peg to the U.S. dollar and allowed it to trade on an interbank market. That was to try and end dire shortages of fuel, medicine and other imported goods.

It hasn’t worked out as planned: the black-market rate remains much weaker amid a lack of dollar supplies from the central bank and investors, who mostly continue to shun the country.

The central bank tried a second big devaluation on Wednesday of almost 25%, which has taken the official price of the RTGS$ to around 4.69 against the greenback. The parallel rate is 33% weaker at 7, according to marketwatch.co.zw, a website run by financial analysts.

Over the weekend, government officials announced that they’d obtained a $500 million loan that would be used to boost liquidity in the interbank market. The relief from that was short-lived, with the black market rate initially strengthening and then giving up its gains.

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