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Oliver Kazunga Bulawayo Bureau
THE 2020 manufacturing sector report to be released soon is expected to bring into perspective both the impact of Covid-19 and the containment measures have had on local industry capacity utilisation.
The manufacturing sector survey is carried out by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), which is the country’s industrial representative body.
Speaking from Harare yesterday, CZI chief executive officer Ms Sekai Kuvarika, said the report would highlight the effect of various policy interventions the Government introduced last year.
“The CZI manufacturing sector survey for 2020 will be released soon. The report will be unique in that its coming out under this unusual period of the Covid-19 pandemic and it will not just be an analysis, but would also put into perspective both the impact of Covid-19 and the containment measures, how these have affected industrial performance,” she said.
The survey covers 10 industrial sectors including food stuffs, beverages, tobacco, clothing, footwear, furniture, paper (printing), chemicals, non-metallic minerals, transport and equipment.
Capacity utilisation is a key statistic derived from the survey as it details a company and country’s industrial performance.
Ms Kuvarika said as the 2020 CZI manufacturing sector survey was coming at a time the nation was grappling with the viral disease, CZI members have spent a lot of money trying to contain the pandemic.
Moreso, companies have had their operations disrupted as they tried to adhere to Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
For example, businesses have streamlined operations to reduce congestion at the workplace.
On account of a host of challenges like foreign currency shortages, obsolete equipment, and power constraints, capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector in 2019 dropped to 36,4 percent from 42,8 percent a year earlier.
Said Ms Kuvarika: “The 2020 manufacturing sector report will also put into perspective the impact of policy interventions the Government promulgated during the course of the year and how such policies as the Foreign Currency Auction Trading System have had on industrial performance.”
The Government introduced the weekly Foreign Currency Auction Trading System towards the end of June last year to improve access to hard currency by the productive sectors of the economy.
The weekly forex auction trading platform, which replaced a fixed exchange rate of US$1:$25 has also been hailed for bringing stability of the exchange rate.
At this week’s auction conducted on Tuesday, the exchange rate maintained stability shedding only a unit as the Zimbabwe dollar traded at 82,08 against the greenback from 82,09 last week.
At this week’s auction, a total of US$35,3 million was released, half a million short of last week’s total disbursement.
Raw materials continued to dominate the market determined auction system with US$15,5 million being channelled towards production.
Online Reporter