Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has ruled out government allowing the Bank of Zambia to offload Dollars into the economy in order to stop the rapid depreciation of the Kwacha stating that this will be of no value.
Mr Chikwanda told Parliament today that the country’s exchange reserves are limited for government to give speculators the leeway to take away the country’s limited foreign reserves.
He says government’s intervention through the Central bank in the exchange market will be limited.
Mr Chikwanda says the Kwacha will strengthen and stabilize as the economy grows, stating that government will not prescribe the exchange rate.
He added that Statutory Instruments number 33 and 55 have helped bring some sanity but that there is still more to be done to get the economy in top gear.
Mr Chinkwanda further states that the rate at which the Kwacha is depreciating is not very worrying.
K5.70 to a dollar is not worrying? Strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thick books are difficult to understand and the difference between people economic and animal economics is even harder to unpack,,,
i recommend a witch doctor be consulted on the depreciation of the kwacha issue
Ukwanomics is not working at all. Sata has taken the country back to what it was before mwanawasa took over. He has zeroed all the gains made by Mwanawasa and RB.
Before Mwanawasa took over the pound was K10,000 to £1, but he managed to bring it down to K4700 to £1 by the time he died. A clear sign that having an educated person in plot one is a need a country can’t do without. Us here in UK had mixed feelings about the appreciation of the Kwacha because it mean’t sending more money home than before. Now its getting better for us to send money home but it does not mean we like it all.
I wish it could continue to fall so people can wake up and rise.
Very soon out of his madness you hear Sata accusing HH for decline of the kwacha.
SATA we need;
1. The new constitution or else?????
2. Cheap fuel.
3. Cheap mealimeal.
4.Low cost of living.
5.Low cost houses for the poor in shanties.
6. High quality health care.
7. High quality education system.
8. Higher allowances for workers skilled in maths and science related subjects so
they stay in the country.
9.Fired nurses to be reinstated urgently.
10 Kangroo justice to be stopped once and for all.
11. Persecution of journalists stopped .
12. All freedoms restored.
13 Rule of law to be reinstated.
14 Use of police to intimidate political opponents stopped.
15 Nullification of opposition seats on flimsy grounds stopped.
16. Masumba ‘s seat to be nullified as he is now a convicted criminal.
I hope I have simplified…
I hope I have simplified our demands in a clear and concise way to make it easy for Sata and his useless mouth piece to understand.
At Wanzelu? U r indeed wa ignorant.. talking of things you dont even understand. Do you think we are in utopia or sata is a small god to achieve all that? Nt even the most advanced countries have all that.. ubu bupuba tata, find something to do and refrain from blogging too much. Its not good for you. Wat you need is an education nd a real job. Not this quantum ignorance you are exhibiting here.
Ati the exchange reserves are limited, the truth is that we have no reserves as they were used up in unbudgeted for by elections and road projects, just tell us the truth.
@Haleisa Halelanda
I am NOT surprised to hear such ineptitude from a useful idio.t like you. Instead of being realistic and optimistic about some of the issues I have raised here, you have embarked on insulting me because of your ignorance and lack of knowledge of how all the things I have highlighted can be achieved.
I would advice you to shut it instead of exposing your ignorance and stupidity on matters you have very little or no understanding.Who are you to say that Zambia can never achieve that when Bostwana our neighbour is seriously way ahead of us.
Its only in your pea sized brain and under Sata and his mad PF that all the things I have listed can not be achieved. Mwanawasa had made tremendous progress in addressing most those issues I have mentioned.
Yes Sata N PF…
@Haleisa Halelanda
If your fikwakwa degrees are confusing you my friend, try and do some thing a bit challenging involving abstract algebra may be you will gain an insight into how things are invented, designed and innovated. Every thing you see in the western world was designed intentionally if its not natural.
To achieve all I have listed takes deliberate efforts by individuals in a country which is governed by a thoughtful , serious minded and ambitious leader, not a mad man like Sata you have in plot one.
For sure if you and Sata think that Zambia can not achieve what other countries have achieved so far then you deserve to live in the jungle amongst monkeys where its business as usual fuelled by complacence.
Its not all of us who survive on bread crumbs from Sata’s…
@Haleisa Halelenda
At least I can give you a bit credit for admitting that Sata so useless such that he can’t achieve even just one of the items I have mentioned above. Your acceptance is the reason why many of us so critical of Sata and you lot in PF and thats why we want all of you gone into oblivion come 2016.
“Not very worrying?”
But he is actually accepting that its worrying. Mr Chikwanda is contradicting himself. PF cadres, preventing a disease is far beyond that of curing. K 5.7 to a $. Lost 3.2% in 2 months, of course its a worry.
Zambia Kaya chabe, Kaya!
Even in the 70s and 80s, he said the old same words but what happened after that was 1991. UNIP was kicked out of dictatorial powers with these same bene Chikwanda and group. Eg Munkombwe, KK, Sata. Now they are back to squeeze and cripple the remaining crumbs of frail Kwacha. And this much be stopped asap, otherwise, the people will suffer the wrath of hunger and poverty.
PF should learn to listen! This not good at all.
He said that even in 1980something when he was finance minister and look at where he led us into. He’s more concerned about his pockets than the country’s economy. Old, pathetic and useless.
This is where the problem lies. We have dandaheads in office. How can a finance minister not be worried about a depreciating currency, even by small margins? In this worse case the Kwacha is depreciating at an alarming rate and he doesn’t worry. Please Mr. Sata retire this man.
Wanzelu Wait for HH, that list will be a thing of the past, just remember that yo vote counts…How on earth can out Minister of Finance not get very worried when the country is losing it economic Value….
Let us learn from Countries like Syria, Zimbabwe, etc…
A wise man learns from other pipo’s mistakes while a fool waits to experience them….What are we as Zambians???
So says the man who will be quick to advocate exchange controls when the S**t hits the fan….
Well spoken Sir..! But your government needs to be more brutal with these investors a.k.a infestors. Espdcially the mines.
@Halelanda
Try harder bootlicking my friend may be Chikwanda will give a pay rise .
I can tell you are an extra ordinary cadre most luckly from a certain corner of zambia. Il end my case here.
@Halelanda
Pls don’t expose your ignorance by blogging here. Better crawl back under the rock you came from. Is it not the government’s responsibility to ensure a favourable economic climate for more US Dollars to inflow into the country thereby making the Kwacha stronger?
The reason we have infesters and not investors is that the present leadership run to the first country that will line THEIR pockets.
Maybe bootlicking is all you are good at. Good luck my friend
Ps. Learn from what has happened to Chief Bootlicker Mukitwa
ITEM MMD(RB) PF(SATA)
1.Exchange rate to USA Dollar K 4.50 K 5.70
2. Price of mealie meal K35.00 K 80.00
3.Price of diesel per litre K7.50 K9.20
4.Price of cement K 45.00 K 80.00
5. Transpot kitwe-Lusaka K 70.00 K 82.00
6. Bags of fertizer to farmers 4 bags 2 bags
So Mr Chikwanda can you not definately get worried with your performance as shown above?
Such analysis is very biased. You havent even factored inflation. Any fiat curreny is meant to lose about 10% of its value annually. Take time to educate yourself.
poor analysis…more money was put in civil servants’ pocket meaning there is more money in circulation…under RB primary school teachers got k1800 today they get about k3800. what dou say?
@Sadi
Only useful idio.ts can dispute your clear and simple analysis which Sata who does not like thick books can understand better.
We need of such analyses to continue sending a clear message to sata that people are watching his mismanagement of the economy.
@ Helalenda,
Please inform yourself about OFFICIAL (Bufi) inflation rate before advising others to be more informed
He seems to have no clue with what he is doing in that office
Yama,mwakota,you should retire,at that rate ati not very worrying??
Awe sure, it is worrying especially when coming from one of the few people you would expect to be level-headed in the PF Government. If this rate of depreciation of the Kwacha is not worrying for our Minister for numbers (Economics) then i don’t know what is. I bought Dollar at ZMW 5.814 at a named commercial Bank in Lusaka just two days ago…surely any well meaning Zambian and a Minister for that matter should be worried considering that we import most of the goods we consumer in Zambia. it becomes expensive to do business.
Why should the Kwacha be stronger than the Dollar? How should this ‘strength’ be sustained? I believe the systemic effects of the Feds in US coupled by the nominal recovery of the EU is bound to test our economic structures and policies in the med to long term if we do not strengthen our market participation and productive sector… Enough said. Meantime the paradox is that Zambia’s cost of living is quite high compared to the capacity of private households. We are like Angola but without the oil…
If any body expected any thing better than this explanation from this UNIP finance minister you would be expecting too much from Mr Chikwanda. After all the UNIP Kwacha (late 1980s-early 1990) was far worse than this so for him this is still not worrying. This thinking is very strange on the part of our finance minister . It is like a drowning person who thinks that water won’t reach their nose while sinking under the water. Chikwanda should realize that he is just following what Sata tells him. So for us to expect something better from past failures is naive at best.
Ndobo, Sata and Chikwanda use experience verses reading thick books, that’s the
reason for no constitution it was way too thick to read.
“IS NOT VERY WORRYING” really? Sometym back wisdom used to be associated with the elderly, its unfortunate its the opposite in the 20st century, how cn dt rate not be very worryn??? U found it @4, tody its closin in on 6…n all u cn say is “its not vry worryn”.. We all knw u won’t be thr wen it’ll become as useless as zim dollar bt lets try n maintain the value 4 da futur generations rgardless of wen we’ll kick da bucket…… (•_•) Da wise bloggr
Uncle Chikwanda hasn’t got a clue why ain’t we surprised he is not worried…even when BOZ management were in panic stations he was busy enjoying lunch.
The man is too incompetent!!
Dont forget this is the same moron who plunged the country into unsustainable debt. Mazombwe and Levy managed to get it forgiven and Chikwanda is at it generating it again.
Precisely the point Mr. Chikwanda. Considering the way you and your team are messing-up the economy, it’s a miracle that the kwacha still has a bit of clout left. However, what you do from this point on, to reverse the negative trend, will be crucial.
I think i have the best suggestion in this case….let us start dollarising by trading and using the US Dollars the currency for Zambia like they do in zimbabwe………then we will be very ok….not to worry about exchange rates going wild.
We have failed to run our own currency like we always do in many other cases like the failed Airline Zambia airways….
i rest my case.
Good suggestion. Only one problem, there are not enough dollars in BOZ reserve to be used to replace Kwacha.
I agree with 142 as the case with Zimbabawe in December last year when people coudn’t withdraw their own money as there was not enough liquidity.
What is interesting is that you have a Minister of Finance who does not back his statements with convincing facts. This is typical of someone who is out of touch with the reality on the ground. It is the small businesses that will be hit the most as the cost of raw materials and machinery goes up. I would propose holding a live debate between the presidential candidates, using a neutral venue and moderator. In a proper democracy, this man would have been a “sitting duck” waiting to be fired.
@Shaka you are another dunderhead of fake Economist!!
Zambia doesnt produce anything – so there are no costs of equipment and materials to go up!! You like parroting everything you read from Harvey’s books of Economics that are written for producing nations!
In Zambia we import everything and sell nothing so we should be more concerned about Foreign Exchange Management!! Wake up fella!!
This Finance Minister should be paid his salary in ZIMBABWE DOLLARS!
Maybe then he will wake up to reality!
Look at Chikwanda and the PF Fools admiring shinning lights in the new building when actually the fools know nothing about managing the Economy!!
The ***** took us into serious debt in the 1970s which we even failed to pay back BUT just forgiven and written off!
As if we learnt nothing from that experience, the SAME FOOL is doing the same thing all over AGAIN and even doing more damage to our Economy!! How docile can Zambians be really!
That is what smoking at old age can result into. This is rubbish! How can this not worry him. Chifumyenipo ichikote ichi mwabikapo! Cabinet full of bakaponya!
Honourable Minister: depreciation of the Kwacha is really worrying to all Zambians at large and you should be the first to actually get worried. The implication is that very soon, fuel prices will go up otherwise I can not see how these current fuel prices can be sustained at this rate of K5.7 to USD1.00. Once fuel prices go up, nearly all prices for the rest of goods and services will go up. Interest rates are likely to go up too. My judgment tells me this is likely to happen within the next 2-3 months. I just hope and pray that you will not be forced to print more money. Otherwise once the factors I have stated above occur, printing of money may be the route you may undertake and that will definitely kill our economy.
As the old saying goes
‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’