Story of the Day
A large coalition of CSOs, traditional leaders, artists, safari operators and other stakeholders has called on President Hakainde Hichilema to honour the promise he made to protect the Lower Zambezi National Park, and halt a controversial open-pit copper mine planned in the heart of the area. Read more
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Zambia expects an International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt health check to be finalised this month, to strike a restructuring deal with creditors by April and get a formal agreement with the fund signed off in May, its finance minister said. “I have to be optimistic, because in the absence of optimism where can Zambia go?” Situmbeko Musokotwane told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “We are a serious group determined to make sure that this issue of debt that’s been dogging us for years and years, we are determined to put this behind us.” Read more: Reuters
Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) recovered over K4.23 million value of goods and services consumers would have lost in 2021. This is compared to about K1.37 million recovered by CCPC in 2020. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Zambia’s traditional export earnings has decreased by 9.3 per cent to K13.3 billion in December 2021 from K14.7 billion the previous month. In terms of the share in total exports, traditional exports accounted for 76.1 per cent of export earnings in December 2021.
This is according to the Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) interim statistician Mulenga Musepa. Read more: Times of Zambia
The Association of Mine Suppliers and Contractors(AMSC) has said harmonised relations between Zesco Limited and the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) is good for the mining sector. AMSC president Coster Mwaba says harmonised relations between the two utilities are critical in enhancing stability in the mining sector. Read more: Times of Zambia
International Business and Finance
America’s national debt just hit another sobering milestone. Total public debt outstanding is now above $30 trillion, according to Treasury Department data published Tuesday. Government borrowing accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic as Washington spent aggressively to cushion the economic blow from the crisis. The national debt has surged by about $7 trillion since the end of 2019. Read more: CNN
Despite being one of the biggest online advertising giants, Google’s ad business is still growing at a rapid clip. Google’s ad sales grew nearly 33% year-over-year to $61.2 billion during the three months ending in December, and contributed to an overall better-than-expected quarter for its parent company, Alphabet. The company on Tuesday reported quarterly profit of $20.6 billion, or $30.69 per share, on revenue of $75.3 billion, well ahead of what Wall Street analysts had projected. Read more: CNN
India’s finance minister has said the country will launch a digital version of the rupee as early as this year. In her annual budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman also outlined plans for a 30% tax on income from digital assets. It would put profits from trading or transferring cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens in the country’s highest tax band. Read more: BBC News
It appears the 3-year-long diplomatic impasse between Rwanda and Uganda is finally coming to an end. The Rwandan Government confirmed the re-opening of its border with Uganda after three years of closure. Uganda lost millions of dollars during the 3-year-long border closure as it could not export its goods to Rwanda. Read more: Business Insider
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In 157 trades recorded yesterday, 2,614,778 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K6,895,549. Share price gains were recorded in FQM of K0.19, Chilanga Cement of K1.93, Real Estate Investments Zambia of K0.05 and in Zambia Sugar of K3.50. Trading activity was also recorded in AECI, Airtel, Bata, Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Pamodzi, Puma, Standard Chartered Zambia, Zambeef, Zanaco and CEC Africa on the quoted tier. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,358.58 points, 5.42% up from its previous close of 6,013.80 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K68,487,124,343 including Shoprite Holdings and K33,704,438,903 excluding Shoprite Holdings.