The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has announced that the annual rate of inflation as measured by all consumer items has declined from 13.0% in September to 12.3% in October this year.
CSO Director Elfreda Chulu says the decline was as result of a decrease in some food prices adding that food products accounted for 6.0 percent while non food products accounted for a total of 6.3 per cent.
She was speaking at the CSO monthly bulletin in Lusaka today.
And Ms. Chulu has said preliminary estimates of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) show that the country’s economy is expected to grow by 6.3 percent this year.
She said this is because of the strong growth of the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries among others.
Ms. Chulu said the GDP for this year is expected to be at K4003.0billion compared to K3, 765.4 last year.
Meanwhile, Ms. Chulu has said the total imports by Broad Economic Category (BEC) in September were K1, 6434 billion in September, compared to K1, 7118 billion in August this year.
She also said Zambia recorded a trade surplus valued at K302.2billion in September this year.
Ms. Chulu said this was as a result of more exports than imports recorded in the month of September.
She said the country’s major export products in September were from intermediate goods.
She said the intermediate goods mainly comprised of Copper cathodes and sections of refined copper plates, wire and sheets of refined copper.
Ms. Chulu said Zambia’s total exports of raw materials accounted for 17.6 percent while consumer and capital goods accounted for 14.9 per cent.
The CSO Director however said the country’s import of capital goods such as machinery, vehicles among others accounted for 33.4 per cent.
She named Switzerland, South Africa, China and United Kingdom as major five destinations of Zambia’s exports in September.
Ms. Chulu said the five countries accounted for 82.5% of the country’s export earnings in September.
ZANIS
There must be a typo in this report. The projected GDP cannot be 63%. This is impossible even by Chinese standards. It must be 6.3%. We need inflation to be under 10%. I guess RB and his government’s spending will continue to push money in the economy, and chew away the purchasing power of the beloved Kwacha in our pockets. Quiet Robbery!
FROM LUSAKANORTH
BY AUSTIN KALUBA
Today Zambia is 45 years old. The days of blacks buying through pigeon holes which irritated the first republican president Kenneth Kaunda forcing him,to stop eating meat are long gone. So are the days of Blacks being stopped for a pass to permit them free movement in their own country.
As the anti-colonialism song in chi-Bemba Ubulofwa bwa kale jauntily stated ; mayendele Muno Zambia (You can now move freely in Zambia) Zambia is celebrating four decades of independence free from the oppressive yoke of foreign rule.The Black Maria with fault-finding,sjambok-wielding Policemen which sent terror in the hearts of blacks is a thing of the past.
Zambia has seen four black presidents and two political parties hold the reins of power. Like many…
While I found reading this artical annoying with the constant repetition of…’she said’, am happy to hear inflation rates declining even if it’s by a percentage. We need it to go down even further…