The Economist ranked 66 countries using four indicators of financial strength.
The rankings show which countries are in distress, and which are relatively safe.
“Our ranking examines 66 economies across four potential sources of peril. These include public debt,foreign debt (both public and private) and borrowing costs (proxied where possible by the yield on a government’s dollar bonds). We also calculate their likely foreign payments this year (their current-account deficit plus their foreign-debt payments) and compare this with their stock of foreign-exchange reserves. A country’s rank on each of these indicators is then averaged to determine its overall standing,” it said.
According to the publication, COVID-19 hurts emerging economies in at least three ways: by locking down their populations, damaging their export earnings and deterring foreign capital.
It said even if the pandemic fades in the second half of the year, GDP in developing countries, measured at purchasing-power parity, will be 6.6 percent smaller in 2020 than the IMF had forecast in October.
Source: Economist
25 years of MMD/PF/(UPND/etc.) neoliberalism. Debt as a virtue. Market based solutions. A mining sector given away to the former colonizers. No taxes collected on the mines in the name of ‘growth’ and of course Rothschild baron profits. (See the history of Anglo-American De Beers, etc.) Same family that controlled the World Bank/IMF through for instance James D. Wolfensohn. Same family whose Rothschild Bank invented the Eurobonds. The Eurobonds the Zambian government was to take instead of collecting taxes from the mines.
This is the exact example of fake news I was talking about on my other article.i am sure even my diasporan clone with south African flag will agree with me here. The EIA also predicted that HH was going to win some election in previous years and it turned out false because the childish boy is not president but only a mere bally. The western world will always want to show African countries in bad light. In fact the ones in distress are the Europeans where thousands continue to die and their economies are suffering from full lockdown. Westerners and diasporans arefilled with hate and cannot allow Africa to be better than them. Look how they report about us on their evil media. Kz
The western world has more to gain by depicting African nations as poor and struggling from covid even when more people have died in their so called rich countries. The agenda to keep Africans poor continues to be pushed as a way of trying to control the fastest growing continent. Africans can’t be f.o.oled any more unless those weak diasporans there who worship the ground that their colonial masters walk on. Kz
So Botswana is depicted as number one on the list… I think that is the only thing real about this list, the rest is fake news. I don’t believe our country should be placed at the bottom of the pile with the high economic achievements and standards we have managed to attain in the previous years since we came to power. Some of us even have properties in the UK due to the economic empowerment our President has given us.
By the way, my phone and email has been busy asking me whether my apology to the diasporas and other Zambians I have offended is genuine or whether I have been hacked… even State House called me to explain myself. The truth is I have not been hacked but I had to remove what was in my chest and now I’m free. My life is perhaps in danger now but now I’m free. Of…
Of course I denied to State house that I have a clone based in South Africa. To avoid landing myself in hot water I will have to write mixed messages and pretend I have a body double. When I criticize my regime and those who hold the key to my life, I will say it is my clone. Kz
As Africans, we should be more concerned about how we see ourselves than how others rank us. How can we allow our growth to be determined by people who have showed us in many ways that they are only interested in our resources and not our development?
We must ask ourselves why the allies were ready to spend billions of dollars to rebuild post war Germany although it was guilty of starting a world war but not ready to empower African nations who they colonized and plundered? It is time to embark on our own, African development agenda because we have all we need to grow on our own back!
This is clearly a condemnation of 25 years of neoliberal policies. Robotically repeating the propagand from the World Bank and narrative managers like the Kochs libertarian institutions – AEI, Heritage Foundation, etc. – is no substitute for direct policies that stimulate demand in the economy. All policies have been supply side policies to create more activity at all costs. The problem is that these are elite policies that are hostile to ordinary people, and we’re seeing that with a last destruction of the demand side of the economy with a global lockdown. Start looking at opinion polls to see what people want, and pursue those goals. Not the directives from the IMF/WB. Use the nation’s resources (copper) to invest in education, healthcare, infrastructure, the SME sector.
Nine chale you are a very sensible man.i can tell that you have read widely just kind me. I hope when I visit Deutschland you can host me so that we can exchange alot of ideas. I like your thinking. Kz
1. Renationalize the mines or have ZCCM-IH own all the shares, and make it completely transparant, because they are handling the people’s resources.
2. Exchange copper for gold to create a gold based currency, or create a copper based currency.
3. Develop local aquifers and rainwater catchment areas to increase agricultural production.
4. Develop industry around the nation’s resources – copper product manufacturing.
5. Free education through college
6. Maintain the roads.
Fake news indeed from JPMorganChase, the bluest of America’s blue-chip financial houses, fake news indeed from The Economist, the world’s most influential English language weekly. Yes , there’s Zambia lying third bottom of the class. The Economist is the magazine the people who hv lent money to Zambia read every week. The truth is its own defence. U can deny it , u can humiliate it, u can pee on it, u can drown it with big lies and spin or crafty political communication in which they teach u how to say meaningless things in a clever way, put but it remains the truth.
FAKE KZ : THE CASE OF DISPUTING THE OBVIOUS….. UNLESS YOU LIVE ON PLANET MARS…. WAKE UP
The comments made above by dull people are the reason Zambia is performing badly.
It makes me sad to see how a grown person can be this dull.
Zambia will just get worse with that drunkard thief in charge. Even a rabbid d0g can do a better job than that impotent drunkard.
Nemwine , ARE YOU ALSO ON PLANET PLUTO…COME BACK TO EARTH
For those who can’t tell the real me from my clone, it is simple: my flag handle is UK while my clone has a South African flag.
@Kaizar you’re welcome brother. Patriotic minds think alike.
Back to the ranking, I also believe Botswana’s placing is bonafide but I doubt Ghana’s ranking. I’ve been following their economy and they seem to be doing relatively well ever since they discovered oil on their shores. One good thing about such rankings is that they should motivate us to check ourselves. We know that we also recently discovered Gold and other precious minerals. If these resources are revenues are properly managed, like Botswana, we can see ourselves on top of the list very soon.
So how are you going to manage your gold in the midst of corruption at pandemic levels?
Just see the ensuing fight for a share of the gold in northwestern province among some politicians. The gold will not even be visible for The Economist to count in favour of Zambia, it will be tucked away in the fat pockets of corrupt politicians.
It is important to respect bodies and institutions such as The Economist which take into total sum of various factors as they research meticulously before they publicise their findings. These rankings are in tandem with other world bodies such as IMF, World Bank and other world financial Institutions. Would rather learn something from these rankings, than other key board catalans that can’t tell what an index denotes. The thinking of thieves as seen above, is that since USA gave Zambia $10 million recently should have improved the ranking of Zambia.
@ Nine Chale,why dont you stay in Zambia and have a good time with your admired friend Kaizar?Instead you stay in Germany,why?
Even the Fake Kaizar is in the UK. He is lying to people that he is in Zambia using a UK IP for internet, the country he is criticizing….These two Kaizar and NIne Chale are hypocrites….
In as much as I hate kz, it is easy to see that his account has been cloned by a fake based in south Africa. We can tell who the real KZ is. We have been dealing with his useless posts for a long time now so clone don’t waste your energy. We can tell just from your writing that you are not the KZ we enjoy arguing with. You lack the character. Too many fakes on lusakatimes
@I am Watching in life, it makes little difference where we live but what we do. It was a blessing for me to be born and raised in Zambia but it has equally been a blessing to be educated and employed in Europe. The time for physical repartriation is yet to come but already, I am trying to give back to Zambia in terms of competence and contribute to the development of my country. It is my delight to find that there are more who share the same progressive ideas with me whether at home or abroad.
@ Nine Chale..Where stay matters my friend. You are staying and working in Germany (paying taxes there) and that is contributing to the further development of Germany and does not benefit Zambia a single bit. If you are patriotic and passionate to develop Zambia as you claim, move there. You think your everyday blogging on Lusaka Times (together with your friend UK based fake Kaizar Zulu) is your contribution to developing Zambia, you are misplaced…
Fake-KZ @10: Please read my posting again. I hope u appreciate puns.
What do you expect when President Lungu is surrounded by people with IQs of mentally retarded. Mentally decimated people can never develop the economy.
@Spovido, thanks brother for noticing the fake Kz from the real one. It’s an honour that everyone wants to be me. Real recognize real. Now I’m out to sip on my expensive whiskey that the South African based fake Kz couldn’t afford with his weak rand. Kz
These rankins were done in bwengwa constitinuency southern province then posted whereever they are coming from.back to the issue ba Lt do something about this frog from south africa pretendin to be our admirable kz.
The PF have been living on a credit card hence the high cost of borrowing! The borrower will ALWAYS be a slave to the lender.. It’s Fake development.
As much as it hurts, these statistics are true. We got to this place when we got rid of KK and UNIP, instead of embracing continuity, we embraced the Washington ideology fully and sold all our assets in the hope of these investors employing us. They stripped our assets and exported all the earnings from our resources. When PF tried to genuinely develop the nation, it created a huge deficit in finances and the scenario we see above. We need to fight to reverse this economic system by having GRZ own our assets so earnings can come right back in full. IDC, ZCCM Gold, KCM, etc are a perfect foundation that needs to grow.
It’s inexcusable that we hv found ourselves in such a mess at a time whn Alexander Chikwanda had access to very enlightened personnel in advisory institutions. Is Botswana not facing Covid-19? Chikwanda doesn’t want such questions being raised. Botswana is doing well including its national university where Zambian experts started some departments from scratch.
What is this fake ranking!!!
MrK: Do u want to bring Hugo Chavez madness to Zambia? The economy is always a human construct and will therefore never give u a perfect society. Even in nature where there’s no human intervention, things aren’t perfect.
Suggestion
For transparency and accountability Get some Batswana to come in and administer the mines
Forex reserves are 70% down , economic growth is 65% down,Kwacha has depreciated 300% since 2012 and Zambia’s debt rating has been downgraded. This EIU ranking is accurate and reflects the sad reality of Zambia.
A nation led by thugs can not prosper? What do thugs know about leadership and management of resources? All PF know is thuggery and denying people what is truly theirs as long as it suits the PF. PF has and will never mean well for the people of Zambia, their lies are everywhere for anyone to see. Voting for PF was a defining moment of just how cheap the zambian people are. A clueless leadership, irresponsible leadership, dictators, will never amount to anything, their end just like their rise is swiftly coming there will be more prosecutions of members of the current government than any government before.
Nickson that made me laugh. Indeed those rankings are fake. We just laugh at these YO ballys with fake news. Kz
@26 flag Zambian Citizen May 3, 2020 At 2:04 pm
This is the first sensible comment you have ever posted in the entire time of your blogging. to be more sincere and specific cos you are leaving out the full face of it, let me spell it out for you….
Your PF has never been strategic and sincere about developing this country. coupled with corruption (fire trucks, inflated price of roads, tollgates, appetite to spend etc. using borrowed money) was a recipe for disaster – which we have now …
The only remedy is bring back the caliber of leaders we had in KKs time: selfless, true patriots who have a genuine heart for the country and not their impoverished selfish bellies – like we have now. ….
This hogwash chabe.
Nonsense article.
Privatization destroyed economic development in this country.As the nation how can they sell over 150 companies and factories in the hands of imperialists?
IMF & world bank betrayed Zambian government by giving them wrong advice when they knew what they wanted.
KZ stop crying like a baby as long as you continue borrowing recklessly and being bad payers you will always be number 64.
Am now going behind a virtual private network am suspecting KZ of trying to dig information about people outside the country here using state agencies just a warning to others.
From Africa alone we are the last.
Its worrying that people like KZ who do not understand basic economics are the people leading zambia… The level of dullness is staggering, whats western about concepts like GDP, international debt, GNP, foreign exchange rate… I wonder what advice you give to our excellence…
These concepts make up the basic principles of economics and if a country does not pay attention to them, it woud result in an economic downfall. These principles know no country or region because they lead to an economic downfall…
So its worrying when leaders KZ say such. I can only imagine what advice you give the president and that shows why the economy is where it is today
KZ,
You sound pretty schizophrenic.
What else is new???
Denials, denials, denials …. even in the face of researched and reality facts. A fly that does not listen to advice, follows the corpse into the grave
The truth is giving PF and KZ sleepless nights.
The reality is that Zambians only need to look in their pockets to know that the past years have been Zambia’s wasted years. They spend sleepless night hungry and thinking of how to get a job.
Theft, policy inconsistencies, thuggery, corruption, violence, gross mismanagement and lies.
Bally will fix all this.
Only 15 African countries are featured on this list. In other words, these are top 15 countries out of 54 African countries and Zambia is among them. When you consider the negative press Zambia gets even from its own citizens, this is no mean achievement.
Botswana owns 15% of De Beers. That’s the difference. They knew the strategic value of diamonds, Israel’s single biggest export. Anglo-American Corporation owns the other 85%.
What percentage does ZCCM-IH own of Glencore, Anglo-American Corporation, De Beers, JPMorgan Chase?
I can see China, Russia, South Korea and 15 other African country’s,this to me is no bad news.We are among the 66 emerging economies in the world and many other country’s in Africa did not make the list.
Zambia should not be on the list ,its economy is very unfit currently.