Carte Blanche with Perry

The next coming weeks will see several of Zimbabwe`s listed companies publish their financials, as Zimbabwe`s earnings announcements season progresses. Already a couple of companies have released their financial results, and there are salient themes that stick out, giving leading indicators of what to expect for some of the leading corporates in Zimbabwe. Numbers are not opinions, and the statistics point to an unforgiving economic environment, which will see even those companies with solid business models and good strategy, struggle under the throes of weakening economic fundamentals. As such, expect tightening margins, slumping profits and slowing revenues this year. Positive earnings stories will be pretty hard to come by. These trends are also going to affect even Delta and Econet, Zimbabwe`s traditional heavyweights, and if these two giants are sneezing on account of the economy, then the rest of the listed companies will most certainly catch a cold. Delta Beverages

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) President, Busisa Moyo One wonders what exactly it would take for Zimbabwe`s business community to take a stand against the governing party`s handling of the economy. From bond notes, cash shortages, high unemployment, anemic growth, it seems not only has the wheels fallen off for Zimbabwe, but so too has the axle and the suspension. Consider this, the politburo will meet today, and on the agenda will obviously be its internal factional fights if the events of the last couple of weeks are anything to go by. Also featuring on the agenda, as a mere afterthought was the state of the economy. Yes, Zanu PF is allowed to sanitise its in-house affairs however it sees fit, but when attention on the economy is continuously relegated to the fringes, surely it must be a cause for concern. Businesses are the backbone of the economy, and they have a vested interest in the state of the economy. Perhaps the country`s business community does not kno

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Dr J.P Mangudya Dr Mangudya`s central bank peers the world over have gained a great deal of prominence over the years, as fiscal policy as an economic recovery tool has taken a back-seat at the expense of monetary policy. Subsequently, the clout of central bank governors globally has rapidly increased and in no small part, due tools such as Quantitative Easing that enables central bankers to create liquidity. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case with Zimbabwe`s Reserve Bank governor. Be that as it may, Dr Mangudya has tried to make the RBZ relevant in the current multi-currency era, which limits the possibility of conducting an independent monetary policy. The themes of the RBZ governor`s monetary policy statements (MPS) over the years, have largely centered around reform and structural transformation of the economy, and the current one proved to be no different. Dr Mangudya appears to have taken a cue from former White House economist,

NetOne Zimbabwe MD Reward Kangai- Image Credit (Fickr) Speaking at the innovation Africa Digital Summit in August last year, NetOne Managing Director, Reward Kangai spoke about the growth of Over-The-Top (OTT) players – like WhatsApp, Viber and Skype -   riding on already existing infrastructure without paying any taxes locally. And it appears he was onto something, as recently, Vodacom and MTN , South Africa`s two largest mobile operators have been pushing for the South African government to regulate social networking applications such as WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and WeChat ,as the mobile phone operators` profits have taken a beating at the expense of these OTT services. It gets worse, In Morocco, the country`s three largest mobile network operators, Maroc Telecom, Meditel and Inwi cut offal their subscribers` access to FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype and Viber in January this year, saying these services should pay licenses. One can almost see Zimbabwe`s telecommunications sector

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Chief Executive, Alban Chirume There is not much happening on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange lately. At the last count, there were only 13 trades, with just two counters dominating trading. Total turnover for the day was a miserly $284,7 thousand. Spare a thought for the 10-plus stockbroking firms competing for an increasingly dwindling cake. However, this activity or lack thereof on the ZSE cannot be said for its boss Alban Chirume`s personal life. Mr Chirume has been grabbing the headlines in his domestic dispute case with his wife Susan Mutangadura. Sure, domestic violence cases happen all the time, and just peering through Crimes and Courts section of all the local dailies, gives insights into just how prevalent this has become. At the heart of Mr Chirume`s and Ms Mutangara`s situation however, is the issue of their standing in corporate Zimbabwe. Alban Chirume, is the face of Zimbabwe`s capital markets as chief executive of the ZSE, while Susan Mutan