UNSTABLE EXCHANGE RATE NEGATIVELY IMPACTING BUSINESSES ACROSS ALL SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY
…..local businesses which employ a large chunk of workers outside the formal sector are now experiencing high operational costs
Lusaka… Monday March 21, 2022 (SMART EAGLES)
The opposition Golden Party Zambia (GPZ) has noted that the continuous sharp depreciation and appreciation of the Kwacha against major convertibles is quickly turning into a continuous business nightmare.
GPZ president Jackson Silavwe says this trend is negatively affecting the business environment at both macro and micro levels in an import based economy, compounded by the fact that our economy is consumer based.
Mr. Silavwe says local businesses which employ a large chunk of workers outside the formal sector are now experiencing high operational costs owing to the up and down swinging of the Kwacha.
“It is only a matter of time local businesses start to fold unleashing more unemployed people on the market thus pushing many into the vicious poverty cycle and economic stagnation,” said Mr. Silavwe.
“For businesses to thrive, a stable exchange rate is needed. As a party that believes in a mixture of both public and private programmes to run and fix the economy.”
He called on the new dawn administration to urgently employ strategies to stablise the kwacha for businesses to thrive across all the sectors of the economy.
“The Government must equally formulate a clear National Economic Plan to revive our economy that will inform into the National Budget and Government policies. A National Budget is not an economic plan,” he added.