Domestic
The Zambia Revenue Authority -ZRA- has dispelled a story indicating that the Authority paid Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) about 95 Million Kwacha in tax refunds to pay legal fees. Read more: ZNBC
Tourism and Arts Minister Charles Banda says the acquisition of the national airline will enable the country to have control over tourism traffic inflows. Read more: ZNBC
The Jewellers Association Show (JAS) of India has described Grizzly Mining Company’s sixth emerald auction sale as progressive but urged the Zambian Government to avoid introducing higher taxes and duty which could cripple the emergent sector. Read more: Lusaka Times
The government of the People’s Republic of China has announced that it has forgiven another debt owing totalling $70million. Read more: Zambian Observer
Access Bank Zambia Limited, has unveiled its new brand identity in Zambia. This follows the successful merger between Access Bank and Diamond Bank in Nigeria in April this year. Read more: The Independent Observer
International
The world’s biggest cocoa producers Ivory Coast and Ghana have stepped up their efforts to reform the industry, imposing a fixed “living income differential” of $400 a tonne on all cocoa contracts sold by either country for the 2020/21 season. Read more: Africa News
The Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index was released this week, revealing that the approval rates for small business loan applications incrementally increased again in the month of June. Read more: Business Chief
The Bank of England says the UK banking system is still resilient to the financial impact of a worst-case disorderly Brexit. Read more: BBC News
The Seattle metro area is now home to the stock market’s only two trillion-dollar companies: Amazon joined neighbor Microsoft in that exclusive club Thursday. Read more: CNN
Boeing has bested Airbus as the world’s largest aircraft maker for most of this decade. Read more: CNN
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he’s “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies, and suggested that Facebook may need a banking charter if the company wants to launch the digital token Libra. Read more: CNBC
OPEC on Thursday forecast world demand for its crude will decline next year as rivals pump more, pointing to the return of a surplus despite an OPEC-led pact to restrain supplies. Read more: Reuters