2022 WAS A DIFFICULT YEAR FOR PRIVATE SECTOR SAYS YUSUF DODIA
The year 2022 has been a very difficult year for the private sector because government did not have enough resources to support economic growth as it was trying to sort out the country’s debt burden, Private Sector development Association, Yusuf Dodia has said.
Mr Dodia said most of the government resources were channeled towards social security investments and as a result, the economy was not being driven by government investments in
economic growth.
He said government decided to come up with a K 22 billion supplementary budget because it was failing to manage to run the country’s developmental agenda within the K173 billion kwacha budget which was initially approved.
“The year 2022 has been a very difficult year for the private sector and in 2021 pandemic hit the nation and there was load shedding, productivity had become very low and businesses were trying to normalize towards the end of 2021 hoping that in 2022 things would be better,” Mr
Dodia said.
Mr Dodia said in the first months of 2022 war broke out in Russia and Ukraine and this has continued to drive upwards the price of fuel, edible oil and fertilizer internationally.
He said this has impacted the country’s economy which depends on importation of edible oil and fertilizer.
Mr Dodia further said the monthly fuel price reviews which have been going up was hurting businesses which are already pressured by the high electricity tariffs.
He said the recently announced increased connectivity by ZESCO has gone up in addition to increased electricity tariffs and this would undermine economic growth because it depends on electricity and fuel in order to support the industry.
CREDIT: DNZ
