By BUUMBA CHIMBULUZAMBIA’S private sector pulse has expanded for the first time in 26 months after two years in contraction zone. The country’s private sector pulse for the month of April 2021 expanded to 50.1 from 49.7 recorded in March as measured by Market Economics Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) prepared by Stanbic Bank Zambia.Victor Chileshe, Head of Global Markets at Stanbic Bank, said: “the PMI has recorded a reading of 50.1, the first above the 50.0 benchmark in 26 months indicating that business conditions have improved in the last months as evidenced by new orders returning to growth thereby ending a 25-month sequence of decline.”Zambia has been in stagnations for 25-months straight weighed by currency weakness fuelling input inflation, energy bottlenecks causing power rationing and more recently, Covid-19 pandemic effects that suppressed consumer demand in addition to disrupting supply delivery chains. The latest PMI however indicates that there were signs of improvement in the private […]
ZAMBIA’S PRIVATE SECTOR EXPANDS
