Former Finance Minister questions Bank of Zambia’s economic projection

Former Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande has questioned the Bank of Zambia’s observation that the country’s 2014 economic prospects still remain strong despite the Kwacha’s continued poor performance against other global currencies.

Central Bank Governor Michael Gondwe last Saturday announced that Zambia’s economic growth for the 2014 is still expected to go way over 7 percent this year.
But Mr. Magande has wondered where the Central Bank is basing its projections to suggest that the country’s foreign exchange has no bearing on the economy.

Mr. Magande has told Qfm News in a telephone interview that unless the Central Bank has done a comprehensive research on the country’s economy in line with the impact of the weakening Kwacha, it could only be trying to instill confidence in the economy to project that Zambia’s 2014 economic prospects still remain strong.

He says the Central Bank is supposed to do an assessment on the private sector in specific sectors or industries for it to understand exactly what the effects of the weakening kwacha will be on the country’s economic prospects.

The former Finance Minister has also observed that going by the manner in which the Kwacha has been performing in the past weeks, the performance of the economy by the end of the year may only be impacted by how the recently acquired US$1 billion will be invested in the economy.