‘Zim needs serious economic reforms’: Page 7 $4

News Worth Knowing Troubled AirZim retrenches: Page 3

May 16-22 2019 ESTABLISHED 1969 @ FingazLive www.fingaz.co.zw Facebook: The Financial Gazette

ZSE Report The All Share Index added 0,1 per- Calamitous cent on Wednesday to close at 143,2 points. NMB gained 7,4 percent to close at $0,29 while Hippo Valley Estates rose by 2,9 percent to end at $1,71 and traded 2,5 percent higher at $11,2991. The In- dustrial Index was up by 0,1 percent to close at 478,6 points, and the Top 10 Index gained 0,1 percent to close at power cuts 135,5 points. The Minings Index was flat at 189,6 points.

Currencies (Bloomberg) % change ◀ USD:ZAR 14,2641 0,15 EUR:USD 1,1183 0,19 ◀ GBP:USD 1,2892 0,10 ◀ USD: JPY 109,4200 0,17 ◀

Stock Markets

overwhelm ◀ ZSE (All Share) 143,20 0,10 ZSE (Minings) 189,60 0,00 ◀ JSE 14,538,00 0,95 ◀ FTSE 100 7 241,64 0,00 ◀ 0,82 Dow 25 532,05

Commodities ◀ Gold 1 297,71 0,06 businesses 0,54 Tabitha Mutenga and Paul Nyakazeya Gloria Magombo said last week. Platinum 851,74 ◀ 0,65 Staff Writers But as households and some industrial dis- Brent Oil 70,78 ◀ tricts continue to suffer under the rolling black- Grains ( ) Grain SA ◀ HE reintroduction of severe load shed- outs, World consultant Sonny Mabheju White Maize ZAR 2 018,98 3.3 ◀ ding by ZESA Holdings ― three years told The Financial Gazette that the crippling Soya ZAR 4 274,93 2.9 ◀ Tafter power cuts had markedly eased power cuts would “wreak havoc on industry”. Wheat ZAR 2 296,41 1.4 ― is likely to worsen Zimbabwean industries' “Electricity is the lifeblood of industry. woes, particularly mines and manufacturers’ Whenever it becomes unpredictable, business capacity utilisation, and the economy’s recov- suffers,” he said, adding that this would also UK plans more ery efforts, analysts warn. make it “impossible for industry to increase This also comes as President Emmerson production to generate much-needed foreign sanctions for Zim Mnangagwa has reassigned Energy minister currency”. BRITAIN is crafting a strategy to Jorum Gumbo to the less influential Imple- “Load shedding will compound the shrink- ensure that a travel ban and asset mentation and Monitoring ministry and the ing economy’s problems. Already, industry has freeze on certain Zimbabwean po- Confederation of Industries has been hit by skyrocketing inflation, the escalat- litical leaders remains in place after said commercial production in the country ing cost of doing business and surging parallel leaving the European Union, Europe will further decline to 34,3 percent this year market foreign currency rates,” Mabheju said. and Americas minister Alan Duncan ― down from 48,2 percent in 2018, due to ris- “We need electricity to deal with the fun- has said. This also comes amid claims that ing inflation, acute fuel and foreign currency damentals that will spur economic growth ... the Commonwealth was reluctant to shortages. now we are switching off electricity supply to readmit “until it improves its And even though, ministry officials have the very industry that is needed to drive eco- human rights record” and there are insisted that industry is to get “preferential nomic growth,” Chris Mugaga, the Zimbabwe widespread concerns that the current treatment” under the power rationing exercise National Chamber of Commerce chief execu- sanctions regime was only affecting ― necessitated by low water levels at Kariba tive, lamented. Robert Mugabe, and a few local en- and currency shortages for imports ― a Zim- In his mind, there was no doubt that load terprises. babwe Electricity Transmission and Distri- shedding would “worsen the plight of com- “The regulations impose an arms bution Company (ZETDC) schedule proves merce and industry in the country and push the CBZ Holdings (CBZ) chief executive Blessing Mudavanhu at the embargo and other financial, immi- gration and trade restrictions … on otherwise. economy to the edge” — adding ruefully that group's new headquarters in Borrowdale, Harare. CBZ ― Zimba- bwe's largest group by assets ― recorded a $72 goods, and technology that may be “ZETDC is giving first priority to the- in the blackouts were “a death knell for industry, used for internal repression,” Duncan dustries. It will not cut power. This is because which is already on its knees”. million post-tax profit in the year to December 2018, nearly tripling it from 2017’s $27,8 million. The institution declared a $9 million said in response to a backbencher, that is where we get a lot of things … if the in- As it is, Chamber of Mines chief executive final dividend for the same period, 156 percent higher than prior who also described President Em- dustries are affected, this means the economy Isaac Kwesu has not only pleaded for his mem- year's. Photo by Darius Mutamba merson Mnangagwa’s government is also affected,” Energy permanent secretary To Page 2 as a “new driver in an old taxi”.