ZAMBIA’s annual inflation rate has recorded a marginal decline of 0.2 per cent from 8 per cent recorded in August this year going down to 7.8 per cent, while the trade surplus was recorded at K98.4 million.
Central Statistics Office (CSO) director John Kalumbi said the annual rate of inflation as measured by the all Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September 2014 was recorded at 7.8 per cent.
Mr Kalumbi said the annual rate of inflation was 0.2 per cent lower than the corresponding annual rate of 8 per cent observed in August, 2014.
He said this meant that on average, prices decreased by 7.8 per cent between September 2013 and September 2014.
“Of the total 7.8 per cent annual inflation rate recorded in September 2014, food and non-alcholic beverage products accounted for 3.6 percentage points, while non-food products accounted for a total of 4.2 percentage points,” Mr Kalumbi said.
Mr Kalumbi attributed the decline in the annual rate of inflation to decreasingly annual rate observed in September 2014, for non-food namely housing, water, electricity and gas, which decreased from 12.3 per cent to 11.5 per in September this year. The annual food inflation rate for September, 2014 was recorded at 6.9 per cent compared to 7.0 per cent recorded in August 2014, indicating a decrease of 0.1 percentage points.
He said the annual non -food inflation decreased by 0.3 percentage points from 9.1 per cent recorded in August 2014 to 8.8 per cent recorded in September in September 2014.
In terms of comparison of retail prices between August and September 2014, showed that the national average price of a 25 kilogramme (KG) of breakfast mealie meal decreased by 2.71 per cent from K72.33 to K70.37.
Mr Kalumbi said the national average price of a 25 KG bag of Roller mealie meal decreased by 3.36 per cent fro K51.79 to K50.05, while the average price of a 20 litre tin of maize grain increased by 6.31 per cent from K25.21 to K26.80.
“North Western Province recorded the highest annual rate of inflation at 9.9 per cent followed by Eastern province at 9.5 per cent,” he said.
Central and Copperbelt province had the lowest annual rate of inflation at 6.3 per cent each in September 2014.
Mr Kalumbi also said that Zambia recorded a trade surplus valued of K98.4 million in August 2014 from K113.0 million
Maintaining a trade surplus (though it slightly droped from K113million to K98million) and a reduction on the inflation rate are economic performance indicators any nation would be happy to achieve, let the UPND and MMD naysayers commit suicide. PF continues to perform wonders, job well done ba Government.
What poverty can do to some once respected viable economic gauget institutions of zambia is worrying! This is not true mr kalumbi sir. You are paid for nothing and this tantamounts to “thieft”.Can you get serious and give the zambian citizenry, who are your employer/ tax payers,the real inflation rate not this trash! Mind you gone are the days when such fundamental economic signals were a preserve of a few!Critically reconsider your costs of consumables,fuel/gas,water,electricity,housing…!
Ok the Civiliseed. its at 30% if that makes you feel better…
Statistics don’t lie stupid *****. Learn to appreciate where its due as opposed to be opposing everything and anything done by the government. We know that most average Tongas will not accept this but please be realistic.
2020vision -please sometimes you should be level-headed for the future of your children’s sake.Dont just pick figures and percentages from an article if you never did them yourself or may be your never did macro-economics and economic policy! Sometimes it is possible to avoid public laughter as a sycomphant and a gulliblist! What a flea circus from PF ‘s inflation rate of september!Very interesting poverty of the grey matter yapa zed!
@civilised true or false Mr knowitall, is a trade surplus and drop in the inflation rate a good indicator of a nations economic performance? The very same organisation also reports when the inflation rate goes up and you are the same highly educated individuals that comes up to say how bad the government is doing. Fitch recently upgraded our international credit ratings do you even know what that means ba macro-economist/ economic policy analyst? Go to the World Bank website you cretin and read about how Zambia’s status as a lower middle income nation has improved under this government compared to previous govts. You Mr civilised are just a frustrated greedy and selfish satanic follower of HH stick to facts and not speculation you cretin.
@2020vision-Thank you for your well researched practical economic indicator together with your world bank website! To me, I only look at the only zambian economy I have and I’m on the ground with it without world bank data! I really feel sad and coloniallised that after 50yrs of independence; 2020vision and his fellow sycomphantists are still using foreign observers and researchers who have versted interests in their baselines and reportings!We do not need whites in london or New York to werge a demonstration for economic sabortage for us.Noooooooooooooooo its long gone baba. Mind you I’m not a frustrated blabla… as you suggested! Very soon you will know the person you are dealling with!
This is not true friends, it is called artificial bankrupsy . It comes into play when maximum product is sold under the table so that it cannot be taxed and minimum product is sold legally and recorded on books. It has been done before kagem was sold in 2008 to gemfields . Mr Govind Gupta; director at that time; laundered emeralds out of the country and sold to his friends privately
Trade surplus?what do you export? Ifyabufi ba PF
We export copper and other non traditional exports such as maize,cotton,emeralds etc.
These figures released by CSO are factual and can be relied upon for analysis. The fact that inflation has dropped is an indication that there is higher productivity which will result in higher economic growth. A drop in the trade surplus however could pose a negative impact on the strength of our local currency against others. The bigger picture is that our economy is growing at a very high rate (6.8%) which is above the 5% rate for Sub-Saharan Africa and as a result our middle class has also grown and increased the demand for the dollar due to a shift in preferences from locally produced goods and services to foreign ones.