Story of the Day:
The World Bank announced that it is releasing the second tranche of its support for the Zambia Macroeconomic Stability, Growth and Competitiveness Program—a US$100 million concessional credit. The credit released today is part of the World Bank’s US$275 million concessional development policy financing (DPF) for Zambia approved by the Board of Executive Directors on October 25 in support of Zambia’s reforms to restore fiscal and debt sustainability and promote private sector-led growth. This latest support will bring total disbursements on concessional terms from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) to Zambia to US$740 million during 2022. Zambia has continued to implement agreed structural policies toward macroeconomic stability even as there are protracted delays from official bilateral creditors to discuss and finalize debt treatment under the G20’s Common Framework. Read more
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President Hakainde Hichilema says government has started devising mechanisms which will ultimately end the energy crisis in the country. President Hichilema says government is developing an energy strategy which will ensure that the country has sufficient and surplus energy at any given time. The Head of State is optimistic that the current power challenges will be used as an opportunity to find permanent solutions to the power deficit that has affected the country for some years now. Read more: ZNBC
The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has recorded 351 investment ventures worth 8.59 billion United States Dollars in 2022 compared to 255 investment ventures worth 3.33 billion United States Dollars recorded in 2021. The 2022 investment ventures represent an increase of 157.96 percent. Speaking at a media briefing yesterday in Lusaka, ZDA Acting Director General Albert Halwampa disclosed that the key sectors of investment included manufacturing, energy, mining, transport, construction and agriculture with the highest investment of US$ 4.0 billion recorded in the construction sector. Mr Halwampa said that the 351 investment ventures translated to 74,679 jobs compared to 24,585 jobs recorded from the 255 investment ventures recorded in the same period in 2021. Read more: Lusaka Times
Zambia’s copper production for 2022 is set to end in deficit, with data from the Zambia Chamber of Mines showing a significant reduction in output at the end of November 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. The data reveals that the country produced a total of 694,250 tons of copper at the end of November 2022, compared to a total of 726,891 in 2021, representing a 4.49% reduction in overall copper output for the period under review. This follows a 4.5% drop in production for the full year of 2021, bringing total output to 800,696 tons. Read more: Lusaka Times
Zambia Association of Citizen Contractors (ZACCO) says the negative 11.2 percent growth rate recorded by the construction sector in 2022 is an indication that the country is not developing as expected. Speaking to Money FM News, Association General Secretary, Danny Simumba said this has been confirmed by ZamStats who have highlighted that the construction sector recorded a negative 11.2 percent growth rate last year. Read more: Money FM
The Zambian Kwacha has continued to be vulnerable to the US dollar. The Kwacha last made a huge appreciation on 10th December, 2021 when trading between 15.90 and 16.21 against the US Dollar, on the bid and offer respectively. On 31st December 2021, the Kwacha closed the year trading at K16.66 per US dollar, and the local unit is closing the year 2022 trading at K17.91 and K18.26 to the dollar. In September 2022, the Zambian Kwacha was the world’s best performing currency against the US dollar, rallying over 18.5% against the dollar from January the same year. Read more: Money FM
International Business and Finance
A survey released by Standard Bank has found entrepreneurship to be the most reliable way to build wealth in Africa. Out of the five countries surveyed, respondents from Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya were most likely to mention entrepreneurship as the main driver of wealth creation. Per the survey, 148 of the 265 entrepreneurs said they made their first million dollars and continue to make more from entrepreneurship. However, respondents from South Africa and Mauritius were more likely to opt for a traditional corporate career in a bid to attain financial freedom. This could be attributed to the more developed financial systems of the two countries. Read more: Business Insider
Samsung expects its profits for the last three months of 2022 to fall by 69% to the lowest level in eight years. The world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and TVs forecast its operating profit for the period fell to around 4.3tn won ($3.4bn) It comes as the global economic slowdown hits memory chip prices and demand for electronic gadgets. Technology giants around the world have been hit in recent months as consumers tighten their belts. It was Samsung’s lowest quarterly profit since 2014 and missed investor expectations of around 5.9 trillion won. Read more: BBC News
Recent months have delivered a steady drumbeat of announcements of job cuts at some of America’s biggest and richest companies. Just this week, Amazon said it was axing 18,000 workers, or 6% of its office staff, while business software firm Salesforce said it would reduce its workforce by 10%, or roughly 8,000 people. That followed announcements from dozens of other firms including big names such as Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, hardware heavyweight Cisco, and payments firm Stripe. Despite the belt-tightening seen in Silicon Valley, the world’s largest economy soldiers on. Read more: BBC News
Sony and Honda, which announced a joint venture last year to develop and build electric cars, have revealed the name of their new car brand. It will be called Afeela. At a presentation during the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony Honda Mobility chief executive Yasuhide Mizuno revealed a prototype of the company’s first car, which looked like a mid-sized sedan, but he revealed little detail about it. The car will be available to order and even purchase in 2025, he said, but the first deliveries of the car would not take place in North America until 2026, he said. The car will be built at one of Honda’s factories. Read more: CNN
Stock futures inched higher in early morning trading on Monday after the major averages notched their first big rally of the new trading year. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 14 points, or 0.04%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.1% and 0.14%, respectively. The overnight moves followed Friday’s first major market rally of 2023. The Dow surged 700 points, or 2.13%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite added 2.28% and 2.56%, respectively, after the December jobs report signaled that inflation may be easing. Read more: CNBC
Capital Markets Report
In 24 trades recorded on Friday, 6,774 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K14,664.10. Trading activity was recorded in ACEI, Copperbelt Energy Corporation Zambia, Chilanga Cement, PUMA, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Zambia Breweries, Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 7,355.71 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K72,949,783,684.85 including Shoprite Holdings and K38,167,098,244.85 excluding Shoprite Holdings.