However she says the local currency has been relatively stable until September 7, this year depreciating by only 2.59 percent against the dollar.
Speaking during oral answer questions, Ms Mwanakatwe says the depreciation of the Kwacha is mainly attributed to increased demand for foreign exchange and the general strengthening of the US Dollar among other factors.
The Minister says in a market based economy the exchange rate like any other price fundamentally affected by the supply of demand for foreign exchange.
Ms Mwanakatwe further says that sentiments do play an equally role in the currency or exchange rate movement.
She adds that the presentation of the 2019 budget provided policy guidance in the fiscal management which is expected in moving forward expected to build confidence to the market.
Ms Mwanakatwe has told the house that the depreciation of the Kwacha has implications and can affect the implementation of the 2018 national budget which an increased debt service is one of the concerns.
She says it is the reason why government continues to priotise expenditure as well as containing sustainable debt level to support the fiscal consolidation drive.
The Minster has however confirmed that government is committed to addressing sentiments through fiscal consolidation as well as the concerns on information aspects such as debt numbers.
She has further confirmed that government and the Bank of Zambia are engaging the key market players and use all available fiscal monitoring tools to stabilize the Kwacha which raises great concerns to government due to the past domestic prices including the petroleum products.
Excellent muma manja umo … Clap !clap !clap!
What are you clapping for, do you know that it meana new budget has to be cut by 19%?
Abakwata amano babutukile limo. Puntu Zambia ngapena, mukamona kwati bwanga
Depreciation is usually an external factor. There are a lot of factors that are involved including CHILDISH behaviour. Go Zambia, go! He will never be president. Everyone knows that he is a Privatization Fund Thief, a Money laundering guru, a Tribalism Gathering agitator and a Boy who wants to guritsa ziko. We will be alright with President Lungu. He is visionary and MATURE.
@Nostradamus
This Guy wont understand, let me explain it a Language he understands best,,,, iwe, yes you who is clapping there, imagine after waiting for your delayed salary, then you buy yourself a bottle of mosi so that you can appear ‘rich’ after drinking chibuku, then I take that bottle of mosi lager I pour away 19% of your beer from the bottle on the ground for no reason,,,,,
@Ndobo & Nostra if you’ve ever read any of my comments in the past you will realize that I am simply being Sarcastic since the PF always seem to want us to praise them at everything. I am surprised you would assume I would be too dull not to understand a very simple monetary shift such as a currency depreciation for a country that has been running a trade deficit since end 2017. Chill comrades sometimes ba PF balanasha u run out of comments but to clap for their mismanagement
@Ndobo, kikikiki your easy example of Mosi.
Now look at Maggie’s picture as if she is pleading with you not to pour the 19% of beer!!!
Well at least Maggie’s look in the picture tells of one with genuine concern!
SHAMELESS is actsuay saying the opposite. The clapping is apparently a way of mocking PF! Easy to notice
MINE TAX ILIKO BAD.
=================
Let’s wait and look.
“Ms Mwanakatwe has told the house that the depreciation of the Kwacha has implications and can affect the implementation of the 2018 national budget which an increased debt service is one of the concerns.”
Really sad..the chickens are coming home to roost…we told you empty tins!!
The worst is yet to come …already they have started making excuses!!
It’s ol. Ikakwela
It is mostly because this government has printed way too much Kwacha secretly.
This has enabled some elements to buy vast amounts of US Dollars. They have also invested heavily in real estate within Zambia.
Again, our government has let us down.
Citizens, things will get a lot worse.
It is because of Panama Tax Haven according to Paradise Papers.
Not even a week on new budget, and it has made 19% deficit.
That’s what this means.
Not even a day or week passes without hearing from a TRIBAL H-opposition Hallucinating that if it were HH as the president Zambia could have been the best economy in the world.
Why has it depreciated because all you in charge looted the money !!!! Pay back the money you stole so that we can get investment back into the country !!!!
we shall get in the money in bank of Zambia and distribute it to electorates in 2021 kikikiki upnd palibe chanu
If he brings the money back from Panama there will be no depreciating. Right now he is depreciating depreciation.
It has depreciated because of HH who put the money in a tax haven in Panama. When he dies the money shall die there too! It will grow wings. The Zambian money he store during privatization must be brought in the economy and we will see appreciation.
Why did she round off the figure? ?? 19.9% to 20%.
Meant why didn’t she round off?
Because if we rounded off CHILDISH he could be a DWARF.
It’s like selling an item for 19.99 looks cheaper than 20:00
@ Steve 5.1, its all about optics,19.9% doesn’t inspire as much panic as 20%. Plus, that 0.1%, has an impact if you consider the figures involved.
UNDER FIVE doesn’t inspire as much panic as CHILDISH.
Cant inspire the Zambian economy. To Chawama his children will go. Looted property will be grabbed. I has happened before and it will happen. Some ex-presidents son has just been jailed for stealing a cell phone
Similar to January effect
How can you expect the Kwacha to appreciate when you have openly admitted failure that you do not have a manufacturing base. There is no value addition. The sales tax would just stifle the whole economy because there is no incentive to invest , at least VAT businesses got credit for business expenditure.
This is what I meant in the previous thread. A volatile currency is stabilised by a strong economy and not the other way around. In short, fix the economy and your currency will stabilise.
ZMW 19% depreciation in 2 months , Forex reserves gone from $3.4bn to just $1.8bn ,economic growth gone from 6.3% to 3.3% . Zambia is getting poorer under clueless PF leadership.
Unfortunately, the Minister Haan. Not explained anything. When a currency appreciates or depreciates, was here is a root cause beyond demand and supply. The question is why short supply (because all banks have not reported a sudden increase in demand beyond the normal). Why have foreign investors in the government securities stopped reinvesting? Why are they not participating in the auctions? The Miniater has been way out of sync with reality. She is obsssesed with with ‘negative sentiment’, a non-issue in investor decisions.
Hon Margaret Mwanakatwe, that is a no brainer. A major contributor is the so called empowerment funds. The so called “vulnerable” women and youths simply sweep out the little forex available to go shopping to south africa. Just tell your Excellency Boss to suspend the empowerment ans you will be amazed when the kwacha turns around. Why blame foreign.investors, when we are our own enemy through reckless political decisions and actions too woo votes? Quash the appetite by the Excellency to spend reckkessly without thinking.
China has prospered because of manufacturing and is now called the world factory. Zambian government has not learnt any lessons but obsessed with borrowing from it and planning to refinance illegal loans . Ethiopia and Rwanda are learning very quickly from China’s success. For example, Ethiopia has developed industrial manufacturing Parks, similar to those you see in China. The Kwacha will NEVER appreciate as long as the country does not earn sufficient forex and the looting, fraudulent procurement and the wanton corruption continues at the current rate.
“Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe has told parliament that the Zambian Kwacha has depreciated about 19.9 percent against the US Dollars in the month of September.”
Why tell the parliament that, what are they going to do about it, as long as you don’t touch their salaries everything is okay.
Trouble with instant news, instant analysis, instant blah blah is that little thought is put in. What’s clear for now is that all emerging & developing country currencies have been depreciating unless their exchange rates are fixed. Pula, rand, peso name them, have been depreciating. Kwacha was very resilient until that tweet.
Downslide will halt when cost of going with negative sentiments becomes too high & imports contract. All those dis-investing are making huge exchange loses currently in the belief they are cutting losses. Nothing wrong with economy and Govt revenue will greatly increase from rising cost of fuel & all inflation.
Any person who doesn’t want to learn from others ayile namafi Ku buko.Just like Pf. Professor Lumumba could have been a good alerter to Pf.Hard luck they never gave hm that chance.
Did it invite him? Now I know why GRZ was capable of seeing through the mashinsha.
People were told from the off set that bakateka had no vision for the future of Zambia but u still voted the chap in, why complain now, you reap what you sow. This was coming from day one
He actually told u him self that he has no vision for the country but u still danced dununa reverse now enjoy the reversal of everything
Going from about K9.8 kwacha to almost K13 is 19.9%? More like 30%. And this is the woman who we entrust to run the country’s finances. I wonder how she will balance the budget like this.
F*ck the slave drivers at work, those who bring up tasks after you complete the main tasks like work is a river. F*ck them and what they represent.
It’s not the Kwacha that has depreciated. It’s the country. With poor leadership, countries depreciate.