Story of the Day:
The Covid 19 pandemic affected many sectors of the economy as well as many companies’ which was also the case with Zambia Sugar as their Global supply chain was disrupted. This brought along the initiative to transfer skills remotely. The environment of weak demand led companies to scale back employment and procurement activities. Despite input prices escalating, output prices have generally been lower as part of efforts to encourage sales. Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Ministry of Finance permanent secretary for budget and economic affairs Emmanuel Mulenga Pamu says there was an increase of domestic debt from K130.2 billion to K143.8 billion recorded at the end of December 2020. Speaking during a special meeting of the National Development Coordinating Committee (NDCC), on priority setting of the 8NDP, Friday, Pamu said the resources were used for government operations. Read more: News Diggers
The Food Reserve Agency FRA has announced that it will purchase a 50 kg bag of white maize at K150 in the 2021/ 2022 crop marketing season. Mr. Hambwezya said the FRA purchasing price of white Maize has increased by 40 percent from the previous crop marketing season. Read more: Zambian Observer
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Leaf Zambia Limited Chipata branch has projected to buy over 5.2 million kilogrammes of unprocessed tobacco worth over K200 million this year.
The company will buy a total of 4.8 million kilogrammes worth K228.8 million from small-scale farmers under its outgrower scheme. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
President Edgar Lungu has urged Zambians to take advantage of the country’s geographical position, arable land and vast waters to enhance farming activities so that Zambia can be a food basket. President Lungu says Zambia has the potential to become an exporter of agricultural products to neighbouring countries and the region. Read more: ZNBC
International Business and Finance
Inflation in the eurozone rose sharply last month to 2% – just above the European Central Bank’s target. Prices were pushed higher by a very strong rise in energy prices from a year ago and put inflation at its highest level since October 2018. It comes as Covid restrictions across Europe were scaled back, boosting economic activity. Read more: BBC News
Zoom sales have more than doubled after a “very strong” start to the year as the Covid-19 pandemic continued. The video calls platform has had a boom in users during the crisis as many employees work from home. Its profits also reached more than $227m, up from about $27m in the first quarter of 2020. Read more: BBC News
China’s Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke today for the first time since President Joe Biden took office. Both the U.S. and China said the two leaders talked about the economy and cooperation, and “frankly” discussed issues of concern. Read more: CNBC
Australia’s gross domestic product rose 1.8% from last quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first three months of the year, according to official data released Wednesday. That compared against expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5% increase. Australian economic activity has recovered to be above pre-pandemic levels and has grown 1.1% through the year. Read more: CNBC
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
In 19 trades recorded yesterday 16,487 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K57,479. Trading activity was recorded in BATA, Copperbelt Energy Corporation, First Quantum Minerals, Pamodzi, Zambia Breweries, ZAMEFA and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share index (LASI) maintained its close at 4,246.55 points, as there were no share price movements.
Chart of the Day: