Thursday, March 28, 2024

Zambia’s inflation sharply falls to 7.2 %, as GDP growth expected to drop to 6.5 %

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An unidentified woman and her daughter selling vegetables and other foodstuffs at Kapapa market in Chipata, Zambia

Zambia’s consumer inflation sharply slowed in December on lower food prices , the Central Statistics Office said said today.

Inflation was at 7.2 percent year-on-year in December from 8.1 percent in November and was expected to end the year at 7 percent, the CSO said.

“The decrease is mainly attributed to a reduction in some food prices,” the statistics agency said.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to compute inflation covers three series, namely, the Metropolitan Low Income Group, which covers Low Income households in the urban areas, the Metropolitan High Income Group, which covers High Income households in the urban areas and the Non-Metropolitan Group, covering households in rural areas.

The Metropolitan areas comprise the 10 major towns. These include Livingstone, Lusaka urban, Kabwe urban and all the Copperbelt towns. The Metropolitan areas are further classified into Low and High Income households. All the small towns and the rural parts form the Non-Metropolitan.

And Zambia expect GDP growth to drop to 6.5 percent in 2011 from 7.6 percent last year, with lower expansion seen in the primary sector.

“The slower growth in the primary sector is attributed to the expected smaller increase in the mining output,” the CSO said.

It said Zambia had recorded a 315.9 billion Zambian kwacha surplus in November 2011 compared with a 187.5 billion kwacha surplus in October

39 COMMENTS

  1. RB and his minions must be licking their lips at the figures in the last paragraphs!

    God basheteni would have dipped their hands in half of that!

  2. OK inflation has gone down but GDP not doing well. Where is Mr Capitalist to explian this to me please?

    • @ Italian Bunga Bunga (Original). Food basket from which inflation is measures always goes down during rain season. This is a country where shonkono and fulufute susbtitutes dry kapenta and Ubowa substitutes beef during this time. sometimes a mango can move from lunch to full meal. if you gone have a food busket with such elements in it then expect its cost to be low and therefore low inflation

  3. GDP down 6.5% and dollar upto to K5150 such is what sets the national Agenda in Europe not the Linyungandambo asking for his birth rights that he was promised within 90 days.

  4. And usual misinterpretation of facts from the PF Dumber and Dumber. I bet drop is GDP is attributed to MMD government while Drop in Inflation is attributed to PF Government. I guess the silly Donchi Kubeba slogan rumbles on.

    Truth is Zambia has been recording Trade Surplus since the Copper Bull Market started firing on all its cylinders. This Trade surplus is not new and we have even have had bigger surplus under RB.

    And drop in GDP is due to low production from copper mines and obviously that was due to election uncertainty. Inflation was MMD government forecast and target to get 7.2 by year end and MMD archived that and can walk around proud, regarding what we inherited.

  5. Much as this may be ‘wow’ the problem is that the people have not seen this alleged reduction in food prices and other goods that make up the food baskets of many households and the cost of business has increased,rather than reduced; case in point is the increase in business permits from k200,000 to just over k1,200,000. I recomend the exploration of oil & other minerals by either the GRZ or local companies so that locals enjoy their own mineral resources, directly/indirectly. 2. Aggressive improvement of the agriculture,tourism,service(all) & education sectors. Lasstly,promotion of entrepreneurship. I personally think there are too many barriers to setting up business successfully. We hope to feel the improving inflation and not just read about it.

  6. Boot fimofimo where are you blogging from? Remember the promise you made just before the elections?

    Buah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

  7. I totally disagree with those surveyors bcoz i just took my wife to soweto last week and she cud not buy the relish she required bcoz all the capentas and likes prices has gone up

  8. @#8 Mr Bean. No wonder your wife couldn`t buy what she wanted, there is nothing called Capenta in Zed mate!

  9. Am blogging from Mauritius, and enjoying my holiday and thinking of moving my private consultancy firm here. The Tax incentives are awesome.

    My Firing from the Embassy and subsequent death from depression has been grossly over exaggerated.

    Am on Holiday and will be back at the Embassy in SA in January, to offer my services that any government cannot do without. It is about marketability and professionalism and not cadre mentality as a lot of you.

    Am around my friend, hopefully I will be able to blog more politically after we have a president as MMD in April. We’re certainly bouncing back, come 2016.

  10. MMD is NOT and WAS NOT a LIBERATION PARTY to die a natural death. We have structures and we have the best brains any party can boast about in Zambia.

    We will be BACK and we shall be the first Political party to bounce back on the continent of Africa!!!

    • Take care of the thieves in your MMD first, maybe then you will have a chance! The claim of witch-hunt by thieves amongst your bunch really makes you people appear more and more unattractive as a party—-man up and stop pretending you were all Angels, otherwise 2016 may be UPND’s time, LOL!!

  11. #11 Bootfimofimo. I like your loyalty to MMD. You are more than a cadre mate. Keep it up and God bless you but my prayer is he doesn`t allow you to steal any more lol!

  12. Food basket from which inflation is measures always goes down during rain season. This is a country where shonkono and fulufute susbtitutes dry kapenta and Ubowa substitutes beef during this time. sometimes a mango can move from lunch to full meal. if you gone have a food busket with such elements in it then expect its cost to be low and therefore low inflation

  13. Boot fimo fimo. Trouble is by the time it`s 2016, people in rural areas where you thought you were going to gunner supper will have heard you have been booted out and for them the wounds will be fresh.

    I honestly would love to see an opposition but it certainly is clear it will not be MMD. Shame HH has got it wrong. You are right, there has never been an opposition party in Africa which has bounced back.

    Abandon ship mate, abandon ship, get your life jacket on and abandon ship!

    Cheers!!!!!!

    Buah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

  14. Stockpiling simply means trying to buy items before you need them so you don’t have to pay full price. We always sample from “Get Official Samples” until we need something to go out and buy it

  15. The figures are okey but its still too early for PF figures, this is just RB momentum. Infact surplus has started dropping sharply if you compared to last year.

  16. “An unidentified woman and her daughter selling vegetables and other foodstuffs at Kapapa market in Chipata, Zambia”

    That is the caption on your photo. How did you know that it is her daughter when she is unidentified and unless I’m blind, I can’t see any vegetables. Ba kolokombwa imwe.

  17. Inflation has gone down primarily because there has been low demand of commodities due to the fact that people do not have money to spend. The government has not started paying for goods and services that have been waiting to be paid for since the elections – as a result many people can’t even pay their workers properly because govt is the biggest provider. If there is low demand, then prices will not move. The more interesting statistic here is the low GDP growth; earlier in the year it had been projected that GDP would grow higher than 2010. Ofocurse elections and change of govt have played a part – but mostly it is because many producers have held on to their recourses instead of investing because they are still unsure about Sata and his policies. Simples….

  18. #16 Italian Bunga Bunga my friend, I think that is a good suggestion and I have thought about it, but again it is my trade mark and people know me for that gravator, I think I will just keep it for legacy reasons really. RB did a lot of good for this country (if you are an economist , you will agree) during his 3 years term and just in honour of him and recognition of his contributions, I will keep it.

  19. I do not appreciate this figures. A survey which was conducted in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area had unexpected results. It showed that the Poverty rate higher when compared with other residential areas. This was due to the fact in the servants quarters were more than 5 people staying their and the Boss’s House had and average of 3 people( Father Mother & one Child). Essence this had the potential to show that the Poverty level in kabulonga is the Highest. 

    So this reduction in Inflation is related to what and what are the real benefits accruing to the majority Zambia citizens. It is Sad story.

  20. @Boot fimo fimo.

    Good luck mate and take care. I am gone now. Happy festives! At the end of the day we are all Zambians mate. Nothing will ever change that and yes we are probably passionate about our country.

  21. 21 MMD Chief Bootlicker, on papers My mbuya Ruphia did well but translating that into economic indicators it is not true. Ruphia must have the vision to uplift the living standards of Zambians but his advisors had opposite visions, motives and that was to enrich themselves by making the Anti corruption Commission, Drug enforcement commission and the police weaker to steal to the bone. People like George Kunda are not worth to trust. He misled Levy over Bulaya and other legal issues that When Ruphia took over again George misled Ruphia over ACC sec37 removal and this is why former leaders in the Ruphia led Govt accummulated wealth with no sense of guiltness or care. Even people from foreign embassies are part of this scum hopeefully Boot you are clean and dedicate to serve Mother Zambia.

  22. #23 Pound and pence how are you mate, I strongly agree with you. Just imagine in Zambia if we can have incentives like the UK were you can go to a supermarket where you can have the choice to buy one get one free. These incentives can boast the economy espeacially for those who likes Alcohol 3 boxes £20. aaaaah my Mbuyas from Eastern province the Phiri, Banda, Lungu, can build wall fences using boxes of alcohol like Ringo Phiri the one who stole billions in 1995 in Ndola who builts a wall fence using sausages.

  23. @20 Gokigo Milazhe
    Demand is inversely proportional to price, ceteris paribus. With this reminder you can intelligently correct your comment if you want to argue along the lines of demand and supply.

  24. Many PF fans hv previously said that they do not work with economic indicators. Why are they commenting on infaltion GDP?

  25. Pafwenamwine, we used to have ‘the incentives’ in Zambia, especially Mosi and Castle where one would buy two and get one free but Chibamba Kanyama banned them saying they were an encouragement to alcohol abuse.

  26. With the Kwacha depreciating by close to 10%(1,000 BPS) Importers and local entrepreneurs who import input materials are under pressure cos the imports are now expensive(O fcourse this is good news to exporters).This will bring about cost-push inflation even if demand is low or the same(The Bakers can attest to this hence the increase in bread price).Question is, Is Zambia a net exporter or importer? and what kind of imports and exports constititute our food basket for our CPI?Lets wait for january CPI.

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