The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange on Friday went for a third consecutive day without trading as buyers shunned the bourse over the introduction of a new tax on profits.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa this week announced a 10% withholding tax on shares sold on the stock market beginning next month.
”The withholding tax will wipe away the investors’ interest, that is why people are boycotting the stock market,” said stock broker Witness Chinyama.
The stock exchange’s directors were locked in a meeting on Friday to try to break the gridlock.
Zimbabwe has 79 companies including the cellular phone service provider Econet, British American Tobacco and mining company Rio Tinto listed on the stock exchange but five have been suspended.
Zimbabwe’s economy is racked by hyperinflation, a plummeting dollar and a foreign currency crunch that is compounding a severe shortage of food and other basic necessities. – Sapa-AFP