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Zambia back to single digit inflation

Zambia back to single digit inflation
By Florence Bupe
Thursday September 27, 2007 [04:00]

ZAMBIA has bounced back to a single-digit inflation rate, which now stands at 9.3 per cent for September 2007, down from 10.7 per cent last month. Announcing the latest inflation rate yesterday, Central Statistical Office (CSO) acting director Efreda Chulu attributed the decline in the inflation rate to reduction in annual inflation rates for food, beverages, rent and household energy.

The 9.3 per cent figure signifies a decline of 1.4 percentage points from the August rate, and an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to the same period last year, which registered a figure of 8.2 per cent.

“The decline of 1.4 percentage points in the annual inflation rate is mainly due to the decline in the cost of food and non-food products. Of the total 9.3 annual inflation rate in September 2007, food products accounted for 3.0 percentage points while non- food products in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) accounted for 6.3 percentage points,” she explained.

Chulu further revealed that a comparison of retail prices between August 2007 and September shows that the national average price of a 20 litre tin of maize grain increased by 4.1 per cent, from K12,859 to K13,392.

And Zambia has continued to record trade surpluses since February 2007, with a surplus value of K656.9 billion recorded for August, 2007.

This means the country exported more than it imported in value terms.
And CSO has estimated the final Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at K3,351.7 billion compared to K3,155.9 billion, showing a growth rate of 6.2 per cent in 2006.

The growth in the economy mostly emanated from the transport, construction, mining and quarrying sectors.

Meanwhile, the 2006 Quarterly Employment and Earnings inquiry results has revealed that the total number of employees in the formal sector reduced marginally from an estimated 483,630 in the third quarter to 482,748 in the fourth quarter of 2006, representing a percentage decline of about 0.2.

Labels: INFLATION

posted by MrK @ 5:43 AM