Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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We didn’t anticipate continued Kwacha depreciation but it’ll stabilise – Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane
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‘Major breakthrough’: Most firms say they’ll stick with a four-day working week after successful trial
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Investors Shy Away from February Kwacha Bond Sale
Story of the Day
A worldwide e-commerce boom is creating new opportunities for merchants. But they must get to grips with a plethora of payment preferences and technologies causing huge variation between markets. A tsunami of digital payments is approaching. Global e-commerce will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% between 2021 and 2025 according to GlobalData projections – higher still in rapidly expanding markets across South America and Asia. Merchants are looking beyond their home countries to tap into growing cash flows, with the value of cross-border payments predicted to reach $250 trillion by 2027. And, with finance app downloads reaching over 4 billion in 2020, the way that money changes hands and the technology used to underpin transactions is evolving too. Read more
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Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane says government didn’t anticipate the continued depreciation of the kwacha against convertible currencies but says this should not worry people. According to the Bank of Zambia rates, yesterday the dollar was buying at K19.5041 and selling at K19.5503 as at 15:30 hours. In an interview, Dr Musokotwane said the performance of the Kwacha could be attributed to the delayed debt restructuring process, which he said was a direct consequence of the excessive borrowing by the PF. “No (we didn’t anticipate it), but these are things that are happening all the time.” Read more: News Diggers
Zambia Association of Manufacturers (ZAM) and USAID TradeBoost have signed an agreement designed to instill corporate governance philosophy in the management of business and thereby attract more investments. The agreement is expected to encourage ZAM members to better follow global Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards and ultimately attract greater foreign investment. According to ZAM, this partnership will create a manufacturing sector in Zambia that embraces strong governance standards, protects workers’ rights, applies environmentally friendly practices and introduces new technologies. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Bank of Zambia says it is currently working on Green Finance Loan guidelines to support lower interest Green Electricity Loans for the domestic sector. Responding to a question raised by Money FM News during the announcement of the Monetary Policy Rate, Bank Director for Non-Bank Financial Institutions Supervision Freda Tamba, said the Central Bank has been building capacity to enable financial instituions give appropriate credit towards promotion of the Green Finance Agenda. Read more: Money FM
China is ready to work with Zambia, an all-weather friend, to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Monday. Talking via phone with Zambian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Stanley Kasongo Kakubo, Qin recalled the telephone conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema in May last year, which has charted the course for the development of bilateral relations. China is willing to work with Zambia to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, enhance political mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, strengthen mutual support, and promote the stable and long-term development of bilateral relations, said Qin. Read more: Xinhua
In International Business News
The largest-ever trial of the four-day work week found that most UK companies participating are not returning to the five-day standard, and a third are ready to make that change permanent. The study involved 61 organizations and about 2,900 workers who voluntarily adopted truncated work weeks from June to December 2022. Only three organizations decided to the pause the experiment, and two are still considering shorter hours, data released Tuesday showed. The rest were convinced by revenue gains, drops in turnover and lower levels of worker burnout that four is the new five when it comes to work days. Read more: Bloomberg
Russia’s economy shrank last year by less than had been expected given its invasion of Ukraine, figures suggest. The economy contracted by 2.1%, according to the country’s statistics agency, but this was less than an earlier prediction of a 12% fall. While questions have been raised about the reliability of the data, many commentators have been surprised at the Russian economy’s resilience. High oil prices and military spending have helped to support the economy. Read more: BBC News
Banking giant HSBC says its quarterly profit has almost doubled, boosted by rising interest rates around the world. The London-based firm reported profit before tax of $5.2bn for the last three months of 2022, up more than 90% from the same time a year earlier. However, pre-tax profit for the year as a whole fell by $1.4bn to $17.5bn, as it absorbs the cost of selling its French retail banking operations. HSBC is also in the process of selling its business in Canada. The bank said it planned to use the money raised from that sale to make payouts to shareholders once the deal is completed. Read more: BBC News
The African Union is launching a debt status data bank on its member states, taking the first step to monitor and advise on possible distress. The decision announced on Friday in Addis Ababa will help member states improve on their fiscal governance as the continental body pursues development programmes among members. The African Union is launching a debt status data bank on its member states, taking the first step to monitor and advise on possible distress. The decision announced on Friday in Addis Ababa will help member states improve on their fiscal governance as the continental body pursues development programmes among members. The East African
Financial leaders of the Group of Seven will meet on Feb. 23 to discuss measures against Russia that will put pressure on it to end the Ukraine war, Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday. Japan will chair the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G7 nations in the Indian city of Bengaluru. The meeting will come almost a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, calling it a “special military operation.” The war has raged on despite a slew of punitive measures G7 and other countries have taken against Russia. “Support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia will be the main topics of discussion,” Suzuki told a news conference. Read more: CNBC
The Supreme Court is set to hear back-to-back oral arguments this week in two cases that could significantly reshape online speech and content moderation. The outcome of the oral arguments, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, could determine whether tech platforms and social media companies can be sued for recommending content to their users or for supporting acts of international terrorism by hosting terrorist content. It marks the Court’s first-ever review of a hot-button federal law that largely protects websites from lawsuits over user-generated content. The closely watched cases, known as Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh, carry significant stakes for the wider internet. An expansion of apps and websites’ legal risk for hosting or promoting content could lead to major changes at sites, including Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube, to name a few. Read more: CNN
Finally, Capital Markets News
As Zambia grapples with a protracted debt restructure quagmire, investors propensity to redeploy liquidity in Kwacha assets is fading. Zambia’s central bank in its sophomore bond offering of the year held on Friday February 17, sold 25% of assets on offer, the weakest performance in 26 months.Of the K2.7 billion on offer, the Bank of Zambia recorded slightly over K645 million in proceeds, a deep undersubscription reiterating ambiguity and uncertainty in the Southern African market. Yields across the curve were unchanged save the 2 year which rose 50 bps to 18.0%. Risk skew for the dismal sale was concentrated in the 2-3 year tenors housing 69.0% of the proceeds as players exercise restraint in lengthening duration. Read more
In 39 trades recorded yesterday, 17,662 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K66,616.26. A share price loss of K0.01 was recorded in CEC Zambia. Trading activity was also recorded in Chilanga Cement, PUMA, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Zambeef and in CEC Africa on the quoted tier. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 7,207.82 points, 0.05% down from it’s previous close at 7,211.56 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K72,306,038,544.17 including Shoprite Holdings and K37,523,353,104.17 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
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