Welcome to Zitamar’s daily Mozambique briefing for 8 December, 2017.
The latest from Zitamar News:
Analysis: Mozambique set for leading role in global graphite production
Mozambique’s output next year is estimated to be greater than all other projects in the region combined
Mozambique met office forecasts normal rains this season
INAM says the 2017-18 rainy season will bring broadly normal rainfall throughout the country
The best of the rest:
Shooting raises tensions on Malawi-Mozambique border (Nyasa Times)
Malawian media have reported that Mozambican border guards shot dead a Malawian citizen and seriously injured another at Makanjira, on the border between the two countries, south of Lake Malawi.
The Mozambique-Malawi border continues to see occasional conflicts – something the two countries are stepping up efforts to resolve. The shooting comes in the wake of a meeting between the two countries aimed at managing border conflicts held just last week.
Inflation falls again to 7.15% (Notícias)
Consumer prices rose 0.72% in November 2017, driven chiefly by increases in the cost of food, soft drinks and transport, bringing the annual inflation rate down to 7.15% and meaning the consumer price index has risen just 4.5% since the start of 2017.
The festive season will probably cause inflation to pick up a bit, but it is now certain to end the year in single figures. The Bank of Mozambique’s restrictive monetary policy has worked, as far as its inflation-targeting mandate goes – but has the broader economic cost been worth it?
Daviz Simango re-elected MDM president (MediaFax)
Daviz Simango was re-elected president of the Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM) on Thursday, winning unanimous approval as the only candidate at the party’s Congress taking place in Nampula. The vote hands Simango another five-year term at the top of the party he founded, and all but confirms him as the party’s candidate for Mozambique’s presidential election in 2019.
There is talk, however, that Simango may not run again for the mayoralty of Beira – the position that made his name, having first won it for Renamo, then as an independent, and then as leader of MDM. Rumour has it that member of parliament Geraldo Carvalho could run for mayor there instead in 2018.
Potential phosphate investors fall short (Notícias)
Companies from Malawi and Brazil which had been considering investing in a phosphate project in Evate, Nampula province, which has been abandoned by Vale, will not proceed due to the limited market for phosphate and their inability to implement the project on the 42 million tonnes per annum scale expected by the government, the head of economic activities in the Monapo district told Notícias newspaper.
The government is aware that the project makes most sense as part of a larger fertilizer production enterprise. However Yara, which is currently negotiating to build a large-scale fertilizer plant using domestic gas, will build its plant on the LNG park site in Afungi in the north-east corner of Mozambique – where they would probably prefer to import the other inputs rather than mining and transporting phosphate from Mozambique’s interior.
Court sets bail of 14.5 million MZN for the ‘Embraer 3’ (MediaFax)
Mateus Zimba, the former country head of Sasol who allegedly established a company to receive a bribe from Brazilian airline company Embraer, has the highest bail price at 6 million MZN (around $100,000), former transport minister Paulo Zucula’s bail is set at 5 million MZN, and former LAM chairman Jose Viegas’ bail is 3.5 million MZN.
© 2017, Zitamar Ltd. Reproduction and dissemination prohibited without written permission.
