Story of the Day
Emirates, which flies daily direct from Lusaka to Dubai and Harare, has appointed Omar Bushlaibi as its new Country Manager for Zambia. Mr Bushlaibi, whose appointment came into effect on August 1, 2022, will oversee Emirates’ overall business in Zambia, including sales and service functions for the airline’s passenger, cargo, management and airport operations. Mr Bushlaibi was previously the Manager for Oman and takes over from Mohammad Bin Hafiz. Read more
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President Hakainde Hichilema held talks with his Malawian counterpart on the sidelines of the 42nd Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development community (SADC) Heads of State and Government in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) yesterday. The two Heads of State discussed matters of mutual interest between the two countries, among them the construction of the one-stop border between Zambia and Malawi. Speaking in an interview after the meeting, President Chakwera said they discussed ways of enhancing cooperation between the two countries. Read more: Lusaka Times
Government says that Zambia’s participation in global aviation meetings at the forthcoming 41st Session of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will help accelerate the country’s aspiration of becoming a regional transport and logistics hub in the region. Ministry of Transport and Logistics Permanent Secretary, Fredrick Mwalusaka said it is important that Zambia is represented during such high level meetings to keep abreast with global trends within the aviation industry, which is a highly regulated sector. Read more: Lusaka Times
Zambia needs to diversify into agriculture and other growth sectors from commodity dependence to maximize returns and bolster economic growth decimated by COVID 19 and global recession, notes the United Nations Economic Commission. Zambia’s growth prospects hinge on the country looking beyond copper mining and leverage the benefits to be derived from agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and mining as the continent seeks to tap into the growth prospects underscored by the launch of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), seeking to bolster intra trade in a single market with over US 2.3 billion market value. Read more: Farmers Review Africa
Chilanga Cement, a subsidiary of Chinese global cement giant company Huanxin Cement has revealed that the price of cement has progressively reduced by an average of 11% over the past 10 months following the continued appreciation of the kwacha, which has also resulted in a better business environment. Company Corporate Affairs Manager Gift Danga said if the kwacha continues to appreciate against major foreign currencies, the cost of production is expected to further go down and this will eventually lead to lower prices for customers. Read more: Zambian Business Times
International Business and Finance
Turkey’s central bank shocked markets Thursday with a cut to its benchmark policy rate, despite inflation in the country sitting near 80%. The lira, Turkey’s currency, slid 0.9% against the dollar, trading at more than 18.1 to the greenback after the news — near a record low. The country’s main policy rate, which had been at 14% for the last seven months, was cut to 13% in a complete mismatch to what other central banks are doing around the world. Read more: CNBC
During an emergency Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held on Wednesday, August 17, the Bank of Ghana’s MPC members voted to hike the country’s monetary policy rate to 22%. This represents a 300 basis point increase from a 19% policy rate just three weeks ago. It is also the highest ever rate hike on record for the West African country. A press release made available by the apex bank at the end of the meeting explained that the MPC members agreed on the rate hike in consideration of the many challenges facing the Ghanaian economy. Read more: Business Insider
Barely two weeks after threatening to reduce its flights to Nigeria by half, Emirates announced today that it now intends to suspend all flights to the country starting September 1st. The airline described the decision as a difficult one but insisted it was necessary to limit the losses it had incurred due to its inability to Nigeria’s dollar shortage crisis. “Therefore, Emirates has taken the difficult decision to suspend all flights to and from Nigeria, effective 1 September 2022, to limit further losses and impact on our operational costs that continue to accumulate in the market.” Read more: Business Insider
Japan’s core consumer inflation accelerated in July to its fastest in seven-and-a-half years, driven by fuel and raw material prices and adding to the costs of living for households yet to see significant wage gains. In a sign of broadening price pressure, the so-called “core core” index that strips away not just the impact of volatile fresh food but energy prices, also rose in July at the fastest annual pace in more than six years. The core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food prices, rose 2.4% in July from a year earlier, that followed a 2.2% gain in June and marked the fastest pace since December 2014, excluding sales tax hike effects. Read more: Reuters
Britain borrowed more than expected in July, official data showed, underscoring the challenges facing the country’s next prime minister to provide more support to consumers hit by sky-rocketing energy costs. The Office for National Statistics said on Friday that public sector borrowing excluding state-owned banks stood at 4.944 billion pounds ($5.89 billion). Read more: Reuters
Capital Markets Report
In 27 trades recorded yesterday, 1,488 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K2,644. Trading activity was recorded in Standard Chartered Zambia and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained close at 6,995.47 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K71,381,726,213 including Shoprite Holdings and K36,599,040,773 excluding Shoprite Holdings.