Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bloomberg news report paints a grim picture for Zambia’s economy, only bold investors would put in the money

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Zambia's Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe
Zambia’s Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe

Bloomberg reports that the spread on the Zambia’s $750 million of debt maturing in September 2022 rose above 2,000 basis points this week. At 22%, the yield was 20 percentage points more than U.S. Treasuries of an equivalent maturity.

According to Bloomberg, these are levels almost unheard of in the bond world. Only nations already in default, such as Venezuela, have dollar spreads and yields as high as Zambia’s. Argentina is in the second-worst position among emerging markets still current on their Eurobonds, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s indexes, and its average spreads are roughly half Zambia’s.

The report went on to say that it would be a bold move for any investor to buy Zambian assets. Moody’s Investors Service last week downgraded the country to Caa2 — eight steps into junk. The economy is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to grow 2.3% in 2019, the slowest pace in more than two decades, and reserves have fallen 50% in the past three years to just $1.4 billion. The government’s attempt to seize copper mines from Vedanta Resources Ltd. has only added to investors’ unease.

“Investing in Zambia’s high-beta Eurobonds is fraught with default risk,” Gregory Smith, a fixed-income strategist at Renaissance Capital, wrote in a note on May 24. “We do not think the government will default on the Eurobond coupons in 2019, especially as half the $237 million of coupons due in 2019 has been paid. However, recent events do increase the probability of default in 2020 and in subsequent years.”

Some investors think prices are cheap enough to justify the risks. The 2022 bond rose 3 cents to 65 cents on the dollar as of 12:33 p.m. in London, reducing the spread to 1,837 basis points and the yield to 20.4%. Zambia’s $1 billion of 2024 securities climbed 2 cents to 66.

“High Eurobond yields, or market pressures, would never be enough. For government to stop signing new loans and cutting ribbons on new infrastructure projects, they would need to feel domestic economic and political pressures.”

Zambia probably needs a combination of an IMF bailout, a credit line from China’s central bank, and a restructuring of loans from Chinese lenders for the government to avert a debt crisis, according to Smith. He estimates a recovery rate of between 60 and 74 cents on the dollar if President Edgar Lungu’s administration does default, which it has repeatedly said it can avoid.

Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe told state TV Wednesday that Zambia had made progress in talks with China to convert dollar debt into yuan. She also said the Zambian and Chinese central banks were working on a memorandum of understanding, without giving further details.

“It would take rising domestic pressures to shift this government from complacency to urgency,” said RenCap’s Smith. “High Eurobond yields, or market pressures, would never be enough. For government to stop signing new loans and cutting ribbons on new infrastructure projects, they would need to feel domestic economic and political pressures.”

Source Bloomberg

82 COMMENTS

  1. ““It would take rising domestic pressures to shift this government from complacency to urgency,” said RenCap’s Smith. “High Eurobond yields, or market pressures, would never be enough. For government to stop signing new loans and cutting ribbons on new infrastructure projects, they would need to feel domestic economic and political pressures.””

    Enter George Soros and his organisations.

    • I don’t foresee Bloomberg getting this way off.

      I think we are in trouble – real trouble.

      Something has to give.

      I hold a phd

      Thanks

      BB2014,2016

    • And for certain individuals they think this is a joke…..remember Greece……Unfortunately we have a President who cares less, he has his money well stashed somewhere in Europe and properties out of Zambia….
      LUNGU PLEASE GET RID OF MWANAKATWE AND YOU WILL SEE THINGS STARTING TO MOVE….We need someone very serious and who knows economics to be in charge of Ministry of Finance or else we are in trouble

    • It’s time to work together as one Zambia to get out of this mess. This will include painfully to some of you PF members, working with other political parties.
      ECL should with immediate effect suspend all international travels and let foreign missions represent GRZ at various stakeholders meetings. It’s time to regain credibility as a country by immediately getting rid of dirty leaves involved in grand corruption and money laundering. Furthermore, ECL should temporarily suspend recruitment to the civil service and the military. In addition, ECL must also make immediate changes at the Ministry of Finance; at the Police Inspector General and Presidential Advisor level in order to build capacity and confidence. And lastly, all infrastructure projects including it’s minister must be…

    • Zambians do not be alarmed by such news. Though it matters to pay attention to such news because we don’t want to see investors go negative on Zambia.

      This is what these guys ( Bloomberg) do all the time. I worked for one of their competitors. Unfortunately business news is not always clean. Its like dog eats dog.

      When they push are for negative news, ( it at times ) means they are representing something in the background. In other words they are virtual (i) Short Sellers and (ii) Long Sellers on Global Capital Markets. And play devils advocates at times, to make $$ & ££.

      We have just accessed confirmed DATA or INFORMATION that 4 Big Investors have put BETS against Zambia from Bloomberg News Feed Terminals. In other words they want Zambia…

    • Cont….

      In other words they are virtual (i) Short Sellers and (ii) Long Sellers on Global Capital Markets. And play devils advocates at times, to make $$ & ££.

      We have just accessed confirmed DATA or INFORMATION that 4 Big Investors have put BETS against Zambia from Bloomberg News Feed Terminals. In other words they want Zambia to go negative, so that they make hundreds of Dollars. They will keep bombarding negative news on Zambia, to win big on bets.

      Its like betting that Arsenal will lose to Chelsea. And if the scores are that Arsenal has lost then the punter walks to the bank smiling.

      Now, among the group that has put a bet is a Hedge Funds that is owned by the Carlyle Group (carlyle.com).

      The Carlyle Group is one of the worlds top Investment…

    • I ask any of you guys in UK or USA that have access to Bloomberg Terminal News Feeds at work, to research or search on this matter. Especially anyone who works in Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, Private Equity Firms, Portfolio Management, Asset Management or Wealth Management. Or use Thompson Reuters Terminals.

      Zambia is being screwed by powerful forces, to paint a grim picture. Unfortunately we have one or two Zambians who want a negative outlook about out nation.

      Just as well PF needs to work hard !!!! Where is our Government Spokesperson to defend Zambia ??

    • Cont.. on 1.6

      Sorry

      The Carlyle Group is one of the worlds top Investment Private Equity where Ex-Presidents in the western world have invested money. Plus who is who in the business and political world.

      So take heart, don’t become emotional about it. The world plays (BUSINESS + DIRTY POLITICS ) together. WHERE THERE IS WINNER, THERE IS A LOSER TOO.

    • How do you believe? An alcoholic Finance Minister and a former Primary school tutor now Mines Minister OR a News Channel that bases its views on analysis of Market statistics and data.

    • NOTHING FROM BLOOMBERG ABOUT MINING COMPANIES WHO ARE INVOLVED IN ALL SORTS OF DODGY TAX-AVOIDANCE SCHEMES THAT HAVE DEPRIVED ZAMBIA OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

    • @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER … they have been shorting Zambia’s Euro Bond yields for the last 2 years. Our sophisticated algorithms showed that at the end of 2017 and we started telling MoF to immediately refinance the Euro Bonds.

      Mutati started listening to us but he was dined and wined in Europe and he turned around to pursue IMF bailouts instead.

      Margaret seems to be drinking the same cool aid, Mutati drunk and if she doesn’t fall in in the next 3 months, she will be history at MoF. Watch this space!!!

      Now back to shorting our assets, as they started shorting the Euro Bonds, at that same time, they also started shorting ZMK at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and they are yielding high profits. And you are right the Carlyle Group is feeding Bloomberg with blurbs to fuel their…

    • Continued…

      And you are right the Carlyle Group is feeding Bloomberg with blurbs to fuel their return on investment(s).

      Here is what we need to immediately solve this problem.

      1. Immediately refinance all the Euro Bonds with a private equity firm not the Chinese.

      2. Suspend all convertible currency trades of the ZMK on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange it’s a back door to weaken our local currency and make our debt servicing on Euro Bonds extremely expensive for us.

      This is what we call a double whammy for them. First they create negative press on the bonds, so yields go up while shorting them.

      Then, they know you have balance of payment cash flow problems and so they short your actual convertible currency at JSE and remember that every time they buy your FX in the Forex…

    • Continued…

      Then, they know you have balance of payment cash flow problems and so they short your actual convertible currency at JSE and remember that every time they buy your FX in the Forex Market they put a call on BoZ to pay them in US Dollars and BoZ has to pay so your FX reserves keep going down unless you are in control of three things:

      1. All your exports are paid in US Dollars at BoZ – in our case all copper/cobalt/zinc/gold, etc. receipts go to Barrick Gold, First Quantum, Vedanta, etc bank accounts abroad so we can’t replenish those convertible currency pulls at JSE that easily thus the dwindling reserves and subsequent weakening of ZMK. That’s why all sales need to be converted to FOB – Lusaka. This way it’s mandatory for all receipts to be received in USD at BoZ first…

    • Continued…

      This way it’s mandatory for all receipts to be received in USD at BoZ first and then externalized if needs be.

      2. We own Treasury Bills in other convertible currencies such as USD, GPB or Euro – none of that is applicable so we can sell off our holdings elsewhere to offset our convertible currency pulls at JSE.

      3. We have a home grown manufacturing base that way we make all equipment and supply/meet local needs – we do not have a stable homegrown manufacturing base so we have to use the remaining FX to conduct day to day business for our bread and butter GDP needs.

      As things stand at the moment everyone is taking us for a ride and we have no control whatsoever. New legislation needs to be in place to curb these issues and we have very smart people at BoZ and the…

    • Continued…

      New legislation needs to be in place to curb these issues and we have very smart people at BoZ and the Ministry of Finance to immediately actualize these things right now.

      KCM owned between ZCCM-IH and IDC, NAPSA, local banks and other local investors is one such way we can start stabilizing things around.

      We got to start owning these factors of production while legislative priorities are taking place to close these loopholes. We are dealing with capitalist vultures here and we cannot be laissez faire about any of this.

      Epo mpelele,

      BRM

    • @Br Mumba, though I haven’t read all your points, I should say you belong to such conversations, you have authority with such.
      But then Avoid temptation to rant over opposition politicians, you weaken your position when it matters.

    • @Mafikizolo … well noted, Sir. The only problem is I am still UNIP so in a way, there will always be that political animus about me.

    • Boy oh boy … this kid BRM. Right on point with all these intricate issues. Just when you are about to lose all hope that the current blogsphere is full of Zambian nincompoop exports, here he comes. As patriotic and as genuine and as educated and as intellectual and as humble and as honest as they should all come.

      A breathe of fresh air indeed!!!

  2. We don’t need fake investors in Zambia.

    We have enough money in Zambia

    The only thing we can do as a nation is to ask HH to bring back the money he has stollen from Zambian mines.

    HH U cannot put money in the offshore accounts when the nation is suffering.

    HH, what u have stollen is the Zambian money. Bring it back.

    Your UPND supporters are wrong.

    • @DJ7 it would really help to share more meaningful contribution to this article. It appears you consistently have one thing to say all the time. Its kind of boring really. Not sure how old you are, but if you are below 20 perhaps you can be forgiven for not taking things seriously

    • Skylab, DJ7, like any other PF supporter, is mentally ill. Accept them as they are. Small brains, extremely thick skulls and an !d!otic arrogance. No intelligence whatsoever. What sane mind in light of all these revelations which are based on fact would still jump around like a deranged monkey declaring support for economic failures? Only people like DJ7 and Njimbu see nothing wrong at all. Insanity.

    • Ba # Independent Observer,

      I agree with you. Bloomberg is no longer driven to report news, but to make money. It is true that some Hedge Funds have put big bets to push some Southern African Nations to end up with negative economies. Among these nations targeted are Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. They don’t like us being friends with China. I know something about the Carlyle Group. It has ruthless investors who play hard ball. Keep feeding such knowledge at Lusakatimes. Your vast knowledge on these matters is appreciated. Often as bloggers we are too emotional and don’t look at facts.

    • BR Mumba Jr.

      Everything you have said is correct.

      My hope is that someone from # Bank of Zambia and # Ministry of Finance is reading your comments.

      Unfortunately, we live in a world where #Fundamental Analysis is overriding #Statistics, #Facts & #Market Technical Analysis

      These guys did the same to Elon Musk. He tried to take back his company through private funding. It was a good idea but his mouth got him into trouble

      Way to go my Bro. And well done.

    • @INDEPENDENT OBSERVER … You got that right, only Michael Dell managed to beat them at their game and he managed to convert DELL from a public to a private company.

      We can do the same, we can overtly convert all our Euro Bonds to private equity and own our own mines and then the only thing they will be left with setting sanctions on our economy.

      You can’t win for losing with these guys and you have to pick your battle wisely but we are getting there. I hope they take heed otherwise we will have them replaced.

      We run this country and they just run it for us.

      You are the best, thanks a trillion my Bro.

      BRM

  3. PF and ECL have shown Africa and the world at large how to fu*k up a good economy and still say everything is fine.
    But I don’t feel sorry for us Zambians, we keep voting for PF so suffer even more, we were laughing at Zimbabwe, well Zimbabwe has come to zambia.

    • Well said!!! In the beginning the PF did ok now in 5 years!!!! We’ve gone from riches to rags with no silver lining in sight. This government thinks that by taxing its citizens to death they’ll be able to pay the money ( which has been misappropriated) back !!!!!!!
      Soon we’ll have 12 or 16 hours of load shedding a day as Lake Kariba levels continue to drop ——They should have cut down on the water usage and implemented 2 hours of load shedding a day in November last year when they knew that the rainfall would be poor ——- they want to do it now !!!
      The pretend that Vendatta KCM have not paid taxes etc when in actual fact they want to give the mine to the Chinese to help pay back money we owe China.
      We will never recover if we do not change this government !!!

  4. Bloomberg has never written anything positive about any African country. Their propaganda is always presented as fact…all this to fight China’s positive rise on the world economy. Beware!!

    • How is it propaganda when their news is based on actual statistics and data? So your tiny brain thinks our eurobonds are doing well on the market and these guys are lying? What kind of creatures are you PF supporters? Your own drunk president called an emergency meeting because of the dire straits of the economy so what are you denying? Please get your head out of your a$$ and start accepting that things are bad. Same as the f00l who has like your dull comment.

    • Dudelove … they create those facts for you and you buy in with a gullible mind. Same as there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

    • Totally agree. They are using all their institutions to fight China and we are the victims they have picked on. As the saying goes, when two elephants fight the grass suffers.

  5. This fight does not need PF to fight it alone. PF needs UPND support. Otherwise this wont end well. You can not win a fight with the West

    • Yes the West can be fought, Asian nations have done it and prevailed. Remember God is not with the western world. Do not be fooled by their wealth, God’s hand is going to disrupt that in the future. Zambia and Africa have to start fighting as one. The west always support inferiority complex Africans, how is that hard for most to see? Zambians have to fight as one for once. Sata on the other hand should have not gotten those euro bonds.

  6. Very sad but then you can’t develop without taking risks. As for Vedanta it’s a different story. An Indian company in Australia has been told it cannot open its giant coal mine until it ensures that the habitat for a certain bird is secured. Here they pollute the Kafue River it’s ok. They avoid to pay taxes it’s ok.

    • When risks are taken, safeguards should be put in place to ensure that the costs of those risks are prudently managed. Do you think PF put in any safeguards when they endeavoured to take any of these risks? Like a debt management policy or stringent controls on the allocation, disbursement and use of borrowed funds? Did they have any detailed strategic plans which included calculating the Rate of Returns on any projects these borrowed funds were used on and the impact on our GDP?

    • Why are you deflecting? When we sold the mines our economic indicators were still very healthy. What’s your excuse?

    • Positive? I thought the reason we removed KK and sold the mines the economy had nose dived? Maybe you were not yet born? KK used everything to sustain the kwacha, he tried the free basket, it failed, he decided to control the kwacha dollar ratio it also failed.

    • Why are we skipping the Levy and RB years when the economy was not nosediving after the sale of the mines? We were designated a middle income nation under Levy, our reserves had over six months import cover and our debt was sustainable, credit rating was good, subsidies in place, everything affordable, no funny taxes, people had money in their pockets, economic indicators were all rising. KK’s mistakes had been fixed by the MMD. The mines were sold as a prerequisite to debt forgiveness accumulated by Chikwanda, the same Chikwanda you PF geniuses brought back to put us where we are today. Whatever way you want to spin it mune PF is a cancer killing this country. One day it will click in your head that no one in PF has any plan.

  7. Discredited UPND propaganda mouth piece…HH is not a sellable brand until he brings back the privatisation loot from Panama and paradise papers

    • I honestly feel sorry for how you PF supporters see things. Economy is dying, your cabinet holds an emergency meeting but your minds are fixated on HH. How exactly do your minds work? Did you know that HH is in opposition and has no influence on policy decisions? Do you not think the people you should hold to account are the ones in charge of government and policy direction? As far as I remember no one ever blamed Sata for whatever went wrong with the economy under RB and Levy, how is it different with HH? Are you saying this one simple cattle herder can bring the government into disarray? Are you admitting he is more powerful than your clueless lord Lungu? I fail to understand I swear.

    • @ Dudelove you can’t honestly understand because you’re into group think mentality of typical UPND sycophants… For your information you’re the only one not aware that HH is a surrogate for the greedy minority whites in our country and have even recruited a white nationalist in their propaganda news on Zambia. Ask you biased head why would Bloomberg be interested in Zambia and not DRC…

    • Fwanya show me your evidence of all these allegations. If you do not have any evidence nishi lyashi lyamu kachasu and also extremely childish. The whole PF has failed to produce any shred of evidence of HH’s wrongdoing so I doubt naiwe you have any.

    • FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER SAYS IT REPORTED K6 BILLION SUSPECTED DIRTY MONEY TO POLICE IN 2018
      The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has released the money laundering report for last year (2018).
      FIC says, “During the year, the FIC disseminated 80 reports of suspected ML and TF to Law Enforcement Agencies involving suspected financial crimes valued at ZMW 6.1 billion or about USD 520 million.”
      Dumb PF cadres ignore such reports of theft NOW and would rather stress their tiny brains on what HH allegedly did over 30 years ago that none of them can prove. Mental patients. smh.

    • Dude love I also feel sorry for you Upnd member. For your information I am not a PF supporter and I would have stood by my country whether it was your Upnd in power

    • Ndanje, that’s where you get it wrong. Feel sorry for the country and not me, why should you feel sorry for a person who is crying over the deterioration of his country? As for you not being a PF supporter, actions speak louder than words. I have never seen a post where you are critical of Lungu nor have I seen any post from you lamenting the state of our economy. Look at you now attacking Bloomberg based on them reporting FACTS. It is a FACT that our eurobonds are in peril and it is a FACT that our debt is not sustainable. You are a PF supporter dude, you may not know it but almost all of us here do. Explains why you bring up HH even in a story that does not mention him at all.

    • Ndanje, see that story I have posted about money laundering involving over K6 billion in 2018? That story would only move you if HH was mentioned as one of the people involved. Your fixation on the man is truly baffling. We have people killing the country right before your very eyes but you insist on sticking to things that happened in 1991 and have no bearing to what we are going through today which is what honestly makes me question the kind of logic you people use. It’s like you find a killer killing someone right in front of you but you ignore that and decide to investigate a murder that happened 40 years ago. Does that make sense ayi?

    • Sakala, HH or even you can become president and nobody should lose sleep over that. The main thing here is your stand on the country’s status. You seem to rejoice on the negatives and mourn on the positives. In fact (true times are bad ) many of you would want the bad patch to continue.

  8. Elisa my swiss wife has tried to invest in local projects in zambia however she has faced challenges from pf supporters who demand an inducement to allow such projects. So now we decided that we will use our own money to help my relatives. I would rather that than the money going to greedy pf cadres. Elisa my beaufful wife and I would also like to announce that we are trying for a new baby. We thank you xx

    • N.E.Z. Wondering who is curious about your family life. Stick to the topic insteady of going private here.

  9. You can’t have a country led by people who don’t understand the value of human capital in modern economical dispensation for a country to prosper. Leadership where the powerful is by physical attributes instead of being knowledge based is doomed to extinction in today’s world.

    • It has been doomed to extinction in all generations. The bad thing in Zambia, is that the people that are supposed to be leaders are not the ones in power. They are not even in the opposition. Zambians should start working hard to develop their nation and report all of their corrupt friends and relations.

  10. Zambians are the most unpatriotic people i have ever come across. I would not be surprised if Zambians hated their own parents!!!. I have not read any patriotic posting neither from posters or from Reporters. Which Zambian in the diaspora would like to go and live among such people

    • Totally agree with you @11. Abena. Yours is the only sensible post on this thread. Having lived in the diaspora for this long and seeing how our friends are so patriotic towards their countries of birth, I find Zambians’ hate for the motherland so shocking. True, most hate their parents.

    • 72 or 3 dialects.

      What do you expect?
      Is patriotism earned, learned or taught?
      If you wanna know how economies in various parts of the world are messed up, ask Iran, Russia and next door Zimbabwe.
      Zambia must develop from within. Believing and succumbing to will-power. Then seek international markets. But how easy is that with unpatriotic beings like double h and unfaithfuls like CKinsultors. Such news pleases folks like double h and his followers.
      Government should prioritize locally driven prescription of development instead of putting faith in the western countries’ text book based so called foreign direct investment.

    • So how will patriotic comments improve the yield on our Eurobonds and also move us from a junk status credit rating? Shall we reason like adults please and not chaps reciting African freedom poems on stage. Good grief!

    • Ba Robbie, you are gravely mistaken. We do not hate this country, we hate the stup!d dull and corrupt leadership that is destroying this country. You chaps who cheer on the !d!ocy of PF are the ones who hate this country. You see it being destroyed and to you it is fine. That is hate.

    • @Abena, @ba Robbie, the govts need to appease the West and accepting unbridled multiparty politics is the serious problem we have. An economy dependent on the West is a grave mistake made by our govt.

      These unpatriotic citizens need a good shambok on the seat of their pants. That’s why the colonialist did it, now they hypocritically call it oppressive when we try to bring order to unpatriotic Zambians.

    • What’s there to be patriotic about a thieving corrupt drunk GRZ ? One that spends $42 million on fire trucks that should cost $12 million, patrotic of a GRZ that sanctions lungus wife to spend $1 million to go and view $50k 2nd hand fire trucks ???

      You are all imbeciles demanding patrotic citizens towards looters

  11. The first step to a solution is acceptance. I’m glad PF government met on Monday and acknowledged all was not well. it is sad that on this forum, we still have some of their supporters seeing nothing wrong. Cataracts remain number 3 causer of blindness, religion & politics take number 1 & two respectively

  12. Spending 3 quarters of your valuable time contempting who will invest in our mines. Bromberg, Moody and JPMorgan with a a suspended tied piece of roasted meat dangling it in front of you saying at one point:
    You have are a favourable investment destination.
    The next moment, you have a good credit

  13. One firm observation I have made is that over the years, we have been electing leaders based on popularity rather than proper economic manifestos especially in recent years. That being said, it will take an economic depression to awaken the current crop of administrators to the realities of the real challenges involved in governance and economic management. For too long we have been practicing a childish type of politics, now is the time to turn to a politics of issues and allow real people of substance to run the nation. Not to say the current crop of administrators is totally incompetent, some of them are learned people but it’s time to put aside tuma personal agendas, roll your sleeves and get down to work to fix our country. Let us be mature and own up to these challenges bane and…

  14. Spending 3 quarters of your valuable time contempting who will invest in our mines. Bromberg, Moody, AC and JPMorgan with a suspended tied piece of roasted meat dangling it in front of you saying at one point, “You have are a favourable investment destination”; the next moment, you have a good credit rating.
    All blinding text book connotations.
    If you’re a country driven by these grades and indices and analyses, you’re sick and doomed. You have a feeling that chaps from these institutions have vested interest in our resources. Aspire for a self driven developmental agenda like your 7NDP. If you have international dependant issues it, redraft it.

  15. We need great men and women to make our nation great. Great and mighty men and women of valor who will put nation before self. These kinds of individuals radiate positive energy and inspire action. We need great men and women who will inspire pride in Zambians wherever they are in the world. Brand Zambia can shine, but we are in dire need of selfless competent leadership especially at cabinet level. Not ba bwana tulyemo we see today posing as ministers. Men of Magande’s calibre.

  16. This is too much really and disproportionate. Our challenges are no more than other countries.

    In these last week’s the UK has faced similar economic challenges, 1) British Steel, Union Chiefs says:- “This time last week, we thought we would be in administration and closed. The fact the government has put us in receivership shows that they will do everything they can do save us and throw us a lifeline. And nationalisation is a dirty word in the Tory party, but we may need to seriously consider temporarily doing it if a buyer can’t be found. It would give the government time it needs,”

    Zambia will not turn upon itself with riots. We’ll put our army out and declare emergency state if we have to. We are not Syria, Yemeni. Thanks for trying Moody’s.

    • UK RETAIL SECTOR. The high streets are lined with empty and closed shops. THE FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY. Major Restaurants Chains have shut down. Signs of worldwide slow downs are everywhere around the globe.

      The Trade wars, Europe BREXIT instability. Everytime the West fart.s we are in trouble.

      The reality is Zambia embarked on infrastructural changes to grow the economy, and we have been caught on a down turn. Who are the analysts putting out these virulent reports, are they enemies of Maggie’s?

    • AND FRANKLY, THIS SAME MOODY’S AND ITS BANKING MATES WERE PRETTY SILENT ON THE DISASTERS LEADING TO THE CREDIT CRUNCH in 2008.

  17. Interesting propaganda aimed at scaring us, knowing the level of cowardice. With or without this government in power, fear is not taking us anywhere. Let us rise and manage this economy prudently. Avoid posting these shallow analyses about the economy. Believe in yourselves. This is not colonial time. I thought we had surpassed the stage of believing whatever our friends from the West tell us without thinking. Be analytical and find solutions. Forget about politics. Think!!!!

  18. As much as we all know that there are economic difficulties being faced and not only in Zambia, Bloomberg is cheapening themselves to always report on negative aspects about the Zambian economy. US economy failed to grow as projected they say its a good Investment destination. See the cases that surround Trump’s ascendancy to power but they see nothing wrong with it. US owes China trillions of dollars including in bonds but not one day did they say China is taking over US parastatals, Huawe is under serious attack by the Trump administration, US is still a good Investment destination they say. The list is endless . Is Bloomberg ignorant of all these and the levels of unemployment in Europe? Even if they talk about issues we already know but singling out Zambia is being sinister. They…

  19. They have ganged up to destroy the economy of this nation with negative publicity through international media. Life is not as easy as we want yes. Prices are high and poverty levels are still not at favourable levels. Despite all these Zambians are still trying their best to put food on the tables. If Zambians don’t see this as an attack to defend themselves from, it will be very difficult for anyone to improve the economy if PF loses elections in 2021. Isn’t Brexit making British Assets difficult to buy? When last did Bloomberg go out with vigour to tell the world how difficult British Assets have become to acquire due to Brexit. How US is no longer a preferred business destination due to Trump’s treatment of Huawe and foreigners. Bloomberg’s obsession with Zambia is like the way…

    • You are so right. Zambia should now empower its citizens like China did so that most of the investment should be done within the country.

  20. There are actually plenty of bold investors on the market. Bloomberg has an Anti-China agenda and is only interested in protecting Western and jewish interests

  21. Most of the people that post anti Zambia sentiments on Lusaka Times are not black Africans. I have friends in PF, UPND,FDD and other briefcase parties. They too still like Zambia and will not talk ill of it to foreigners. As Africans we should be careful who we open our traps to about God’s continent, most of these vile creatures out there are fighting a global economic war, and they want Africa’s resources. Africans for once band as one and do not listen to these ” Zambians ” with non African genes. This sounds bitter, but it is the truth. The Chinese are actually better allies than Indians will ever be.

  22. The people who know should just agree with PF and their supporters ……

    Yes , PF and your LT supporters , you are right , all this is fake news. These finically agencies don’t know what they are talking about and have a hidden agenda

    • We all know that Zambia is hurting economically, as always and a lot has to be done to fix things. No one should be spared, these financial agencies tell the truth about the loans and borrowing, but their negative outlook for investors in buried in pure evil and deceit. President Lungu and his investigative agencies need to weed out all corrupt officials and have them pay back all they have stolen. Zambians have become corrupt that it is sad. We are the own designers of our own problems. I don’t like any inept person ruling party or opposition. In the opposition, there are too many people that will sell the nation to western interests, just as their are morons in the ruling party auctioning the nation to western and eastern crooks.

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