Business

HARARE – Zimbabwe could miss the projected five percent economic growth target next year as Finance minister Tendai Biti’s budget does not capacitate the productive sector, economic analysts said. The analysts said Biti needs to direct expenditure towards the sector. The Treasury chief’s projected economic growth is underpinned by anticipated output improvements in the mining…

HARARE – Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed seed producer SeedCo has reported a $9 million loss after tax in the half year to September 30, 2012 from a $1,4 million loss incurred same period prior year. The group attributed the depressed performance to reduced winter cereals planting and delayed off-take of input programmes. Revenue for the period…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s out-dated Companies Act needs to be amended to bring it in line with international standards and best practices, industry and business leaders say. The amendments would also improve the country’s business environment, they said. The current Companies Act was enacted in 1953 in the then Rhodesia to cater for a few established…

HARARE – Zimbabwe cut and polished a mere 0,1 percent out of a targeted 10 percent of the total diamonds produced last year, President Robert Mugabe said. The country produced 8,5 million carats in 2011, according to statistics from the Kimberly Process. The revealing figures dampen government’s efforts to realise more from its minerals, particularly…

HARARE – Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC)’ s Zimbabwe unit Portland Holdings Limited (Portland) is considering investing close to $200 million in the construction of a new plant in the north eastern region, following its compliance with the country’s indigenisation law. The investment would see the cement manufacturer’s current production capacity increase from 800 000 tonnes…

BULWAYO – The South African Reserve Bank (SARB), in partnership with the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), has embarked on a campaign in Zimbabwe to raise awareness on the recently-launched series of South African bank notes. “The campaign is aimed at educating the public about the new SA bank notes which now feature an image…

HARARE – Trust Banking Corporation (TBC) says negotiations with three potential investors to inject money to meet the central bank’s capital requirements are at an advanced stage. William Nyemba, TBC chief executive, told businessdaily that the investors were all foreign and hoped a deal would be concluded before end of December. “Local investors have no…

HARARE – Finance minister Tendai Biti’s banking reforms have attracted heavy criticism from bankers and market watchers who believe the new regulations will have negative consequences on the financial sector, particularly small banks. In his 2013 budget presentation yesterday, Biti proposed that banks pay a minimum four percent per annum interest rate on $1 000…

HARARE – Finance minister Tendai Biti yesterday presented a $3,8 billion 2013 national budget, with key reforms expected in the banking sector. While the budget remains largely unchanged due to depressed fiscal space and lack of credit lines, Biti proposed a cocktail of measures to bring sanity into the banking sector. “Where there is market…

HARARE – Zimbabwe is expected to contribute 360 000 platinum ounces (oz)  —  a six percent increase from last year — to the total 5,8 million oz of global platinum production forecasted this year, refiner Johnson Matthey (JM) said in its Platinum 2012 Interim Review. The southern African country has the second- largest known platinum…