The Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) has echoed the need for Zambia to restrategise as public Finance is not rocket science. Association President Dr. Lubinda Haabazoka said delayed salaries, rising public debt are all early warning signs of greater economic turbulence to come hence the need to think outside the box in addressing these challenges.
In the wake of economic woes characterized by liquidity issues, funding strains, rising currency risks and public debt, think tank in Africa’s second largest copper producer Zambia has called the Zambian authorities to go back to the drawing board to restratgise to curb these risks.
Dr Haabzoka on the 15 April urged the state to defer sales tax to 2020 and also advised that local commercial banks be made primary holders of proceeds from mineral exports. He also urged the BOZ to widen the bid ask spread on currency trading to mitigate speculative nature of trading.
Dr. Habazooka said rising public debt, delayed salaries and exchange rate depreciation are all early earning signs of possible greater economic turbulence to come and must call for quick action to address, he carried on his social media page.
All these issues have solutions but for these to be implemented there is need to think outside the box and not go on, business as usual. If we work together these issues can be sorted out by September 2019.
The Economics Association of Zambia will this year host its debut National Economic Summit at which it targets to cluster business leaders and policy makers in Livingstone to harness national economic diplomacy. It plans to use this platform to extract solutions to some of the challenges that Zambia is facing.