By Tawanda Musarurwa

HARARE -Zimbabwe's infla-tion rate could start hit-ting an upward trajectory by March this year, according to a leading local think-tank.

The country has been experi-encing deflation - or at least disinflation in some observ-er's perspectives - since the effective dollarisation of the local economy.

The Zimbabwe Economic Pol-icy Analysis and Research Unit (ZEPARU) however said any possible upturn in inflation in the short-term will be based on the success of some the policy measures announced in the 2016 National Budget. Said ZEPARU executive direc-

tor Dr Gibson Chigumira:"We forecast that inflation will slightly rise from about -2,47 percent in December

2015 to about -2,10 percent by March 2016.

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Friday 05 February 2016Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw

'Zim inflation to rise by March'

"But this is assuming that some of the measures that were put in place by the Min-ister (of Finance and Eco-nomic Development) in his 2016 National Budget will come to fruition and also that there might be stabilization of the South Africa rand," said Dr Chigumira.

He however cautioned that a weak rand remains the greatest threat to a positive inflationary outturn for Zim-babwe, especially insofar as South Africa is Zimbabwe's largest trading partner.

"But if it continues on a free-fall that could affect us adversely."

On a month-on-month basis, the country's inflation rate for December 2015 stood at -0.11 percent, shedding 0,27 percentage points from the November rate of 0,16 per-cent.

Non-food inflation stood at 0,22 percent, shedding 0,28 percentage points from -0,06

percent in November 2015, while food and non-alco-holic beverages inflation also declined by 0,26 percentage points from 0,04 percent in November 2015 to -0,21 per-cent in December 2015.

Zim inflation reached its low-est in Oct at -3,9 percent.

The country's use of the multicurrency system - but effectively the United States dollar - has hamstrung mon-etary officials in effecting traditional tools for economic stimulus through monetary policy (that is, interest rates adjustments).●

2 NEws

Dr Gibson Chigumira

BH243

HARARE - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said on Thurs-day it is mobil izing long term affordable financing for miners in the gold and dia-mond sectors as it seeks to increase contribution of the minerals to export earnings.

RBZ governor Dr John Man-gudya said the two minerals were key to the recovery of the struggling mining sector and of the overall economy.

Zimbabwe has slowly pushed up gold production in the last few years, surging to 13.9 tonnes in 2014 to $18.6 tonnes last year and earning the country nearly $700 mil-l ion. The target for this year is 24 tonnes.

Dr Mangudya said about $25 mil l ion was availed in the second half of last year to the gold sector in support of production activit ies.

“The bank is increasing access to long term financ-

ing by continuing to source affordable long term financ-ing for the mining sector. The bank is therefore targeting to deploy more resources to the gold sector,” he said.

Through its gold buying and processing subsidiary, Fidel-ity Printers, Dr Mangudya said small-scale gold miners would also be provided with equipment. Small-scale min-ers last year upped their con-tribution to production of the yellow metal to 40 percent from 25 percent the previous

year.

The RBZ said it was also pushing for decriminaliza-tion of gold possession which would allow individuals to freely sell the mineral to Fidelity on a “no questions asked” basis. Monitoring of players in the sector wil l also be tightened to curtail i l legal activit ies, Dr Mangudya said.

The RBZ governor once again expressed displeasure at fai lure of the diamond mining sector to make any meaning-ful contributions to the econ-omy.

“Unlike gold and tobacco which have signif icantly con-tributed to the l iquidity in the economy, diamonds have been a great disappoint-ment,” Dr Mangudya said.

Unlike in neighbouring coun-tries such as Botswana and Namibia, Zimbabwe’s dia-mond mining ventures have fai led to impact on economic

activity as largely antici-pated raising serious ques-tions on issues of transpar-ency and accountabil ity as well as leakages.

The central bank was sup-portive of efforts to merge operations of the sector into one company called the Zim-babwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), Dr Man-gudya said.

He said about $30 mil l ion for working capital was being mobil ized for the ZCDC to enable it to reach the target of six mil l ion carats that the Government has set for this year.

“The bank’s great desire is to ensure that the ZCDC grows and becomes what Fidelity Printers is to the RBZ. The two, Fidelity Printers and ZCDC should become the agents for economic transfor-mation in Zimbabwe.”-New Ziana ●

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RBZ targets increased gold, diamond production

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By Munesu Nyakudya

HARARE - One of country’s largest fuel retailer, Total Zimbabwe says it is targeting to spend $10 million in capi-tal expenditure this year.

Speaking on the sidelines of the official opening of the retailer's Westgate Service station earlier this week, group chairperson Mr Chris-tian Des Closieres said:

“We will invest $10 million this year," he said "Infact we have a regular programme where we invest 10 million

US dollars per year. The other thing is that we cannot com-promise quality, we can never do that,” he said.

Last year the group chairper-

son said the company spent over $8 million.

“In 2015 total Zimbabwe invested over $8 million. We (Total Zimbabwe) continue to invest in this market because we believe in the people of Zimbabwe with whom we have walked a long journey spanning close to 56 years,” Mr Closieres said.

Total Zim has just over 100 service stations dotted around the country.

Mr Des Closieres said the company would remain in the

country for the long-run, and said they welcomed the indig-enisation law.

“We feel optimistic to do business in Zimbabwe because first of all we know the market we have been here for long and we have gone through different peri-ods and we know and can resolve issues with each other, we know that we can resolve issues when there is a good dialogue between the parties. That is why we have welcomed the announcement and the indigenisation pro-gramme,” he said.●

6 NEws

Total Zimbabwe to invest $10m in 2016

BH247

By Funny Hudzerema

HARARE – The Zimbabwe Asset Management Corpo-ration (ZAMCO) has so far collected $357 million of the total non-performing loans as at December 31, 2015 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Man-gudya has said in his 2016 monetary policy.

Dr Mangudya said ZAMCO has made a notable progress in collecting nonperforming loans during the 2015 period and they are stil l putting in place measures to reduce the level of non-performing loans.

“The Zimbabwe Asset Man-agement Corporation (ZAMCO) has made notable progress in fulfi l l ing its man-date of cleansing banks’ bal-ance sheets through acqui-sition and restructuring of non-performing loans.

“As at 31 December 2015,

ZAMCO had acquired and restructured non-performing loans totalling $357 million from a number of banking institutions,” he said. Cur-rently the levels of nonper-forming loans in the country are amounting to $750 mil-lion.

“ZAMCO has acquired and restructured loans for dis-tressed companies that have good turning around pros-pects.

“These companies are in crit-ical sectors of the economy such as mining, agro-pro-cessing and manufacturing,” he said.

He added that a total of 18 NPLs amounting to $77,4 mil-lion are at various stages of evaluation.

Further, ZAMCO, in conjunc-tion with judicial managers is at advanced stages of con-cluding restructuring transac-

tions of four (4) companies, with combined value of $31 million.

Currently six companies are working with ZAMCO to col-lect the NPLs the companies include RioZim with $33,7 million NPLS, Cottco $29,8 million, Hwange $14,8, Cairns $6,9 million, Border Timbers $6,6 million, CSC $2,1 million and Global Horizons $1 mil-lion.

In his monetary statement the Governor said the first quarter of 2016, focus will be on all other eligible NPLs out-side the top 100 with a mini-mum amount of $50,000.

“In that regard, banking institutions are required to ensure that loan and secu-rity files as well as business plans in respect to NPLs they wish to sell to ZAMCO in the second phase are in place to facilitate the due diligence and asset review processes,” he said.●

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ZAMCO absorbs $357m non-performing loans

BH249

HARARE - The main-stream industrial index lost 1.37 (or 1,33 percent) on a week-on-week basis, despite ending the week on a positive note.

The index added a further 0.16 to close at 101.67 as giant insurer Old Mutual gained $0,0987 to $1,7687

on the back of announce-ment that fungibility limits for shares in Zimbabwean register were increased from 40 to 49 percent.

Padenga added $0,0010 to close at $0,0700 and Econet moved up by a marginal $0,0005 to trade at $0,2205.

On the downside, Tru-worths dropped $0,0019 to settle at $0,0081 while Colcom lost $0,0100 to trade at $0,1600.

The mining index was flat at 19.53. It also remained flat on a week-on-week basis - BH24 Reporter ●

ZsE10

Equities lose 1,33pc week-on-week

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MovERs CHANGE TodAy PRiCE UsC sHAKERs CHANGE TodAy PRiCE UsC

Old Mutual 5.91 $1.7687 TRUWORTHS -0.19 $0.0081

PADENGA 1.44 $0.0700 COLCOM -5.88 $0.1600

ECONET 0.22 $0.2205

iNdEx PREvioUs TodAy MovE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 101.51 101.67 +0.16 points +0.16%

MINING 19.53 19.53 +0.00 POINTS +0.00%

12 ZsE TABlEs

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13 diARy oF EvENTs

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

PowER GENERATioN sTATs

Gen Station

03 February 2016

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 420 MW

Kariba 285 MW

Harare 30 MW

Munyati 29 MW

Bulawayo 24 MW

Imports 0 - 300 MW

Total 1371 MW

—10 February 2016 - Nampak Zimbabwe Annual General Meeting: Venue 68 Birmingham Road, Southerton, Harare: Time 12:00

—18 February 2016 - 70th Annual General Meeting of the members of CAFCA ; Place: Boardroom at the company’s registered office at 54 Lytton Road, Workington, Harare; Time: 12:00 hours

—23 February 2015 - 38th Annual General Meeting of the members of Powerspeed Electrical Limited; Place: Powerspeed Boardroom, Gate 1, Powerspeed Complex, Corner Cripps Road and Kelvin Road North, Graniteside, Harare; Time: 1100 hours

25 February 2016 - Extraordinary General Meeting (“EGM”) of the Shareholders of Radar Hold-ings Limited; Place: Tanganyika House, 6th Floor Boardroom, Harare; Time: 0900 hours...

25 February 2016 - The 49th Annual General Meeting of Mashonaland Holdings Limited; Place: The Boardroom, 19th Floor, ZB Life Towers, 77 Jason Moyo Avenue, Harare; Time: 1200 hours...

THE BH24 diARy

BH2414

Moody's, the rating agency that has been the most optimistic of the top three about SA, has changed its tone, bluntly warning yesterday that weak economic growth and lower tax revenues would lead to a credit rating downgrade.

SA’s low growth was "credit nega-tive" and would hamper the gov-ernment’s efforts to raise tax rev-enues and broaden the tax base, it said.

That implies a downgrade if growth and other areas of con-cern, such as a large budget deficit, do not improve. A down-grade will raise the government’s

cost of borrowing, cause capital outflows and further weaken the rand.

"Even though the National Treas-ury has budgeted conservatively for the current fiscal year and next … the near-zero growth rate is a significant further downward shift in the already narrow tax base that buoyant tax elasticities cannot overcome," Moody’s sen-ior vice-president Kristin Lindow said.

The Reserve Bank has lowered its growth outlook for this year to 0,9 percent from 1,5 percent, while the World Bank revised its projection to 0,8 percent from

1,4 percent. The International Monetary Fund pegs it at 0,7 per-cent.

Economists still expect Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to announce tax increases in his budget on February 24, despite Moody’s saying this could be hard to do given anaemic growth.

Value-added tax was unlikely to go up, but the marginal rate for individuals was likely to be raised and a special levy could be applied to companies based on turnover, head of taxation ser-vices at Deloitte Africa, Nazrien Kader said. The challenge was to generate taxes without jeopard-ising growth or making inequality worse, she said.

Tepid growth would hamper infra-structure investment, lowering potential long-term growth, con-tributing to high unemployment and worsening social tensions, said Moody’s.

Earlier this week, the World Bank also warned of rising poverty, saying SA was flirting with reces-sion. Moody’s rates SA two levels above speculative grade or junk at Baa2 with a negative outlook. - BDLive●

REGioNAl NEws 15

SA: Moody's takes tougher line as it flags higher risk of downgrade

The dollar headed for its worst week since 2009 as traders boosted bets the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates on hold this year. Demand for government debt sent Japan’s 10-year bond yields to a record low.

Asia’s regional stock gauge resumed its decline, led by Jap-anese shares, as the yen headed for its biggest weekly gain in more than six years.

European and US stock futures both declined. Japan’s 10-year yields extended a slide toward zero, fueled by the central bank’s move to negative interest rates.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has fallen 2,4 percent this week as economists forecast US govern-ment data on Friday will show jobs growth in January was the weak-est since September. Patchy US data ignited the dollar’s retreat this week, while concern the American economy is vulnerable to global headwinds fueled the declines.

The fixed-income market is pricing in no Fed rate hikes this year, as central banks from Asia to Europe have mixed success trying to quell the turmoil that’s roiled markets in 2016.

While a weaker dollar makes com-modities more appealing in other currencies, oil is heading for its first weekly loss since mid-January as US inventories rise to a record.

“Expectations are growing by the day that the Fed will not hike again this year given the weaker growth picture and tightening financial conditions,” Jason Wong, a cur-rency strategist in Wellington at Bank of New Zealand Ltd., wrote in an e-mail to clients. “The key release is US employment data overnight, which is expected to show some payback in employment growth in January.”

Stocks

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0,3 percent as of 7:29 a.m. in London, bringing its drop in the week to 0,5 percent. The Topix index in Japan fell 1,4 percent with the local cur-rency poised for its best weekly performance since July 2009.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average is on track for its fourth weekly retreat in five weeks, sliding 4 percent as losses among exporters wiped out gains incurred after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly bolstered eco-nomic stimulus on Jan. 29.

“The Bank of Japan has done what

they should, but what they could do had its limits,” said Juichi Wako, a senior strategist at Nomura Hold-ings Inc. in Tokyo. “Until now the view on the US economy was that it’s recovering, but the pace isn’t as fast as hoped. Now there’s some concern in the market that it may actually be contracting.”

Japan’s biggest pension fund, the world’s largest, has been denied permission to bypass asset man-agers when doing business in the local stock market, according to Kyodo News. The $1,2 trillion Gov-ernment Pension Investment Fund had been seeking clearance to act directly rather than hiring man-agers in order to reduce operat-ing costs and boost the size of its investments.

Australian stocks fell, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index in Sydney down 0,6 this week. Futures on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0,3 per-cent on Friday and those on the S&P 500 Index fell 0,2 percent. Nasdaq 100 Index futures slipped 0,2 percent as LinkedIn Corp. plummeted in extended New York trading after forecasting below-es-timate revenue.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0,6 percent, while the Hang

Seng China Enterprises Index gained 1.1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0,6 per-cent.

Mainland Chinese markets are closed next week with Taiwan’s for the Lunar New Year break, while Hong Kong is shut for the first three days, resuming Thursday.

Currencies

The dollar has dropped 3,2 percent this week to $1,1194 per euro, poised for its steepest slide since October 2011. Australia’s dollar fell 0.1 percent after government data showed retail sales was weaker than economists forecast and the central bank reiterated it has scope to cut interest rates.

Bonds

The rally in Japanese government bonds set off by the BOJ sent the yield on 10-year benchmark notes to an unprecedented 0,025 percent in Tokyo on Friday.

Nomura Asset Management Co. stopped accepting investments into some money-market funds as the $14,1 billion dollar industry grapples with the negative interest rates introduced by policy makers. - Bloomberg●

iNTERNATioNAl NEws 16

Dollar heads for worst week since 2009 on fed; Japan bonds rally

By Dr Marlon-Ralph

We have been having some buzzing discussions on the TechMedicine WhatsApp group. Since its launch, it has managed to draw a diver-sity of talent ranging from doctors, students and public health specialists, to startup founders and award winning developers.

A recent hot topic we had touched on advertising of health services and devices in Zimbabwe.

Most people are shocked by the realisation that doctors are not allowed to advertise. This includes quite a number of the budding techpreneurs that I have had the privilege of working with.

Take a pause to think. Why is it that you have never seen your favorite practitioner on an advert just before the 8 o’clock news?

Why the surgeon who per-formed the first ever success-ful surgical separation of con-

joined twins, doesn’t have his own jingle on the radio that is aired every 15 minutes?

Whether they may prefer to or not, is irrelevant. They are prohibited by law. This prohi-bition is not limited to doctors but extends to every health professional ranging from pharmacists to dietitians.

There are also restrictions on the advertising of medicines and medical devices. Those adverts on TV that we may be familiar with, are only for

non-prescription over-the-counter drugs like pain killers, cough mixtures, and anti-ac-ids.

There are rigorous rules and regulations that give reason to why blood pressure drugs and ARVs are not advertised on TV even though they are life-saving drugs.

Startups seeking to venture into health care seem taken aback by this realization as advertising is an integral part of the success of any company.

What’s the point of developing a solution you can’t inform the market about?

To put some of these fears and questions to rest, I ventured into a bit of investigative jour-nalism and accosted the pow-ers that be.

The Medical and Dental Prac-titioners Council of Zimbabwe is the governing body that was set up by law under the Health Professions Act (Chap-ter 27:19). It published a document called ‘Policy on Information to the Public’ that governs the kind of informa-tion doctors or an institution or group with which a doctor is associated can disseminate to the public.

For those who are developing health care solutions that will involve doctors offering their professional services such as telemedicine, here are some quotes from the policy that I think you may benefit from considering.

“Advertising of professional services by a registered prac-

17 analysis17 ANAlysis

How regulation of health services advertising is affecting tech startups in the sector

18 analysis18 ANAlysis

titioner is deemed to be an act of unethical conduct as patients are vulnerable to mis-leading information. Equally, it is an act of improper con-duct for a registered practi-tioner to associate themselves with an institution that adver-tises for patients.”

“Information must contain truthful and balanced rep-resentations…you should not make direct comparisons between the quality of your services and the quality of services your colleagues pro-vide.”

“You must not put pressure on people to use a service, for example, by arousing ill-founded fear for their future health.”

“The information must not unduly glamorize products and services or foster unreal-istic expectations”

“You must not provide infor-mation about your services by visiting, emailing or tele-phoning prospective patients,

either in person or through an agent”

“It is not appropriate to offer, manufacture, promote or dis-tribute or discount coupons or gift certificates for medical treatments.”

“It is not appropriate to offer medical treatments as prizes or gifts where this is done to promote a commercial service or for financial gain”

Judging from the list above, spam emailing or pop-up mes-sages will not be allowed. Apart from these, there are also rules governing infor-mation put on websites, how entries in the Telephone Directory should appear and even how office signs should look! Violating these policies is a serious offense that may lead to a disciplinary hearing for the registered practitioner.

This intense scrutiny auto-matically leaves a host of tech-focused health services in a very grey area. Examples include Dial-aDoctor services,

online diagnostics and remote patient care.

To date, Econet has been the one entity at the forefront of using these packages, with NetOne set to launch its own mobile health services later this year.

However, these options will need to be cleared by the nec-essary authorities, something that requires a revision of leg-islation to reflect changes in technology.

The regulation may seem harsh but these policies are put in place to protect the public. False and misleading advertising that creates unre-alistic expectations endangers members of the public.

Health tech entrepreneurs have to be wary

The MDPCZ does acknowledge the unprecedented opportu-nities that ICT advancements are providing to enable better sharing of health information. However, they prefer that

information conveyed be the one that promotes the health of the population as opposed to promoting business.

This doesn’t mean that one cannot advertise nor does it mean that a healthcare start-up won’t flourish. It means that a different strat-egy is needed from the one that brands like Coke and Axe deodorant employ.

If again you may consider the earlier example of your favorite GP, even if they don’t seem to advertise, their offices always seem full of people requiring you to wait in line. This is because of the high demand that exists for health services and that the doctor offers good quality care.

Therefore as an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, we should set our focus on creating gen-uine products and services that help people knowing that healthcare is a big enough sky for every bird to soar in. - TechZim●