Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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Zambia’s central bank raises key interest rate to 9.5%
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EU states approve world’s first comprehensive crypto rules
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US default could trigger recession, ‘break’ financial markets – Treasury Secretary, Yellen says
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Zambia Sugar Records Strong Sales Growth at Half Year Amidst Surge in Illicit Trade
Story of the Day
After working in the corporate environment for several years, I have had the privilege of cultivating work relationships with colleagues and superiors. Throughout this time, I have witnessed a few colleagues from different types of organizations transition from enjoying the work they do to struggling to muster the motivation to go to work. I have asked myself this question multiple times, what changed? Was it fatigue from working at the same company and performing similar tasks for an extended period, was it the urge to progress in different areas in one’s career, was it the work-life balance aspect or was it something else? All factors may contribute to one’s happiness in the workplace, but an overlooked detail as to why some people have chosen to “jump ship” is toxic work relationships. Read more
In Local Business News Sponsored by
Zambia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 9.50% in a decision announced on Wednesday. The Bank of Zambia had also raised its main rate by 25 basis points in February, citing a deteriorating outlook for inflation, after keeping it unchanged at 9.0% since November 2021. Annual inflation edged higher to 10.2% in April from 9.9% in March. Read more: Reuters
ZCCM-IH minority shareholders say Vedanta must write off the debt that it is owed by KCM as a condition for its return to the mine. The shareholders say KCM is in a dire financial situation because of Vedanta. In a statement, Monday, Minority Shareholders Spokesperson Thierry Charles said financial problems at the mine will continue and it will take years for KCM to get back on its feet if the current debt was not written off. Read more: News Diggers
Government is this week set to launch an initiative which will help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to come up with viable and bankable climate change projects. Financing climate change projects remains a challenge which requires bankable and viable project proposals, says Green and Environment Minister Collins Nzovu. Nzovu said at the First National Bank (FNB) Zambia breakfast workshop on Environmental, Social and Governance meeting on Tuesday in Lusaka that financiers needed bankable and viable projects. He said the initiative to be launched would assist SMEs with easy processes for setting up these projects. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Six African leaders are to travel to Russia and Ukraine in a bid to find an end to the conflict, South Africa’s president has announced. Cyril Ramaphosa said he had held separate phone calls over the weekend with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts. Both Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky had agreed to the plan, he said. “Principal to our discussions are efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the devastating conflict in the Ukraine, its cost in human lives and impact on the African continent,” Mr Ramaphosa said. “I presented the initiative on behalf of African heads of state from Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa.” Read more: ZNBC
Bank of Zambia Exchange Rates
Currency | Buying | Selling |
---|---|---|
USD | 18.4993 | 18.5476 |
GBP | 23.1426 | 23.2105 |
EUR | 20.1291 | 20.1854 |
ZAR | 0.9718 | 0.9752 |
In International Business News
President Joe Biden and Republican leaders have expressed cautious optimism that a deal to raise the US debt ceiling is within reach, following emergency talks at the White House. But House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters the two sides are still far apart. The standoff has forced Mr Biden to cut short a foreign trip. Without a deal, the US could enter a calamitous default on its $31.4tr (£25tr) debt as soon as 1 June. Read more: BBC News
European Union states on Tuesday gave the final nod to the world’s first comprehensive set of rules to regulate cryptoassets on Tuesday, piling pressure on countries such as Britain and the United States to play catch up. An EU finance minister meeting in Brussels approved rules that were thrashed out with the European Parliament, which gave its approval in April. The rules are expected to be rolled out from 2024. Regulating crypto has become more urgent for regulators after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Read more: Reuters
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday warned that a default on government debt would likely leave millions of Americans without income payments, potentially triggering a recession that could destroy many American jobs and businesses. Yellen told a gathering of community bankers that the unprecedented economic and financial crisis would be exacerbated by possible disruptions to the federal government’s operations, including air traffic control, law enforcement, border security and national defense, and telecommunications systems. The accompanying financial crisis could multiply the severity of the downturn, she said in remarks prepared for delivery, adding, “It is very conceivable that we’d see a number of financial markets break – with worldwide panic triggering margin calls, runs and fire sales.” Read more: Reuters
A group of banks led by Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley is working on a compromise deal to unlock a months-long stalemate that’s stalled efforts to calculate and disclose the carbon footprints of the industry’s capital-markets operations. Any agreement would mark a milestone in climate finance. Assigning responsibility for so-called facilitated emissions — or those that are enabled through debt and equity underwriting — remains a divisive subject, which is the main reason climate accounting has so far focused on direct lending. But that’s about to change. The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), a global alliance of banks created to figure out how to get the industry to align with the goals of the Paris climate accord, initially indicated that a deal may be reached during the first quarter. That target was missed after banks involved in the talks disagreed over how much banks should disclose. Some banks in the eight-member PCAF working group for capital markets emissions want the industry to report 100% of their facilitated emissions. Others argue the figure should be 17%, which reflects capital markets’ share of all industry financing and derives from analysis by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Read more: Yahoo Finance
The only listed sugar manufacturing company on Zambia’s Lusaka Securities and Exchange, Zambia Sugar Plc, has reported stronger sales growth at half year 2023 (period ending 28 Feb 2023) for their current financial year, according to information released by the company to shareholders and investors. According to the statement by the Company Secretary Harriet Kapekele – Katongo issued in Lusaka, Zambia on 16 May 2023, the total financial revenue for the six-month period to 28 February 2023 grew by 5% amounting to K2.35 billion largely driven by strong domestic and export sales. Read more
In 160 trades recorded yesterday, 70,075 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K250,021.20. Trading activity was recorded in CEC Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Real Estate Investments Zambia, Zambeef and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 8,150.79 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K76,410,598,978.90 including Shoprite Holdings and K41,627,913,538.90 excluding Shoprite Holdings
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