Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats)

The economy grew by 1.4% in 2019 compared to 4.0% in 2018.The Industries with the largest contributions were :Info & comm(17.9 percentage points),Public administration & defense (8.0 percentage points)Human Health(7.9 percentage points)Financial & insurance(7.7 percentage points

GDP estimates for Q2 2020 show that the economy contracted by 2.1% from a 0.3% growth in Q1 2020. This is also lower than the 2.3% growth recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.

Total trade in August 2020 increased by 13.1% to K 22,619.2 million from K 19,991.5 million in July 2020. A trade surplus of K5,318.1 mil was recorded in August 2020 indicating a 15.7% increase from a July 2020 surplus of K 4,595.6 million, driven by an increase in exports.

Contribution - Lusaka (4.8 percentage points) and Copperbelt (3.0 percentage points) provinces made the highest contributions to the overall annual inflation of 15.7%.

Northern province recorded the highest annual inflation at 19.6%, followed by Western province at 17.3%. Eastern province recorded the lowest annual rate of inflation at 13.2%.

Year- to- date inflation was recorded at 11.7% in September 2020 (Corresponding period in 2019 at 7.9%). This means that, the average prices of goods and services increased at a faster rate in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019

Food inflation for the month reviewed saw a drop in prices of food items such as cereals (Breakfast mealie meal, Roller mealie meal, Maize grain, Millet, Sorghum) at 14.0%.

The annual inflation rate for September 2020 increased to 15.7% from 15.5% in August 2020. The rise in the annual rate of inflation was attributed to the increase in Non-Food inflation to 17.7% from 15.4% in August 2020.

@Zamstats Copper export volumes during March 2020 rose by 13.2% to 71,882.2 mt. LME copper prices declined by 8.9% to US$5,178.7 per mt in March 2020.

@Zamstats Zambia recorded a Trade Surplus of K181.5 million in Mar.2020 from a February 2020 deficit of K119.5 million.Exports increased by 6.6% to K8,346.4 million in March 2020 from K7,829.1 million in February 2020

@Zamstats Both Food and Non Food Inflation increased in April 2020. Food inflation increased from 15.2% to 17.0%. Non-food inflation increased from 12.7% to 14.2%.

@Zamstats The annual inflation rate for April 2020 increased to 15.7% from 14.0% in March 2020.The increase in the annual rate of inflation was mainly attributed to price increase in both Food and Non- food items

@zamstats The volume of refined Copper exported in February 2020 decreased by 11.0 percent from 71,392.8 metric tonnes in January 2020 to 63,515.8 metric tonnes in February 2020

Zambia recorded a Trade deficit valued at K119.5 million in February 2020, a shift from a trade surplus of K2,351.8 million in January 2020

@zamstats Lusaka province recorded the highest rate of annual inflation at 16.8 percent, followed by Southern province at 14.7 percent. Western province recorded the lowest annual rate of inflation at 9.4 percent

The year on year inflation rate as measured by the all items Consumer price Index for March 2020 increases to 14.0 percent from 13.9 percent recorded in February 2020

Zambia's trade surplus increased by 248.8 percent from k674.3 million in December 2019 to k2,351.8 million in January 2020. Both imports and exports recorded decreases though the decrease in imports outweighed that of exports resulting into a rise in the surplus.

Provincial changes in annual inflation rate show that between February 2019 and February 2020, Southern province had the highest rate of annual inflation at 16.6 percent, followed by Lusaka at 16.0 percent. Western province recorded the lowest annual rate of inflation at 8.7%.

The year on year non-food inflation rate for February 2020 was recorded at 11.6 percent compared to 9.4 percent in January 2020. This increase was mainly attributed to items such as Rentals, Cement, Purchase of vehicles and Transport services (mini bus and taxi fare and Air fare)

The year-on-year food inflation rate for February 2020 was recorded at 15.9 percent compared to 15.4 percent recorded in January 2020. This development was mainly attributed to price movements of food items such as Maize grain and Meats such as Chicken, Beef, Pork sausage.