Zambia Statistics Agency, in its latest report, says the country’s inflation accelerated by 1.8 percentage points in December from the previous month.
The annual inflation rose to 19.2 per cent in December from 17.4 per cent in November, Interim Statistician-General, Mr Mulenga Musepa, said during a monthly briefing.
Musepa attributed the increase to a rise in prices of food items.
He said that annual food inflation rose to 20.2 per cent in December from 16.8 per cent in November and this was mainly due to price increase of fish, meats, cooking oil, dried beans, fresh milk and sweet potatoes, among others.
On the other hand, month-on-month inflation for December rose to 3.2 per cent from 2.2 per cent the previous month.
The increase in the monthly inflation rate was attributed to general price movements of food items.
Similarly, the Zambian economy shrunk by 2.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2020, down 3.7 per cent year-on-year, the country’s statistics agency said.
Musepa attributed the decline in the economic growth in the third quarter to underperformance of the wholesale and retail trade, public administration, arts, entertainment and recreation as well as the construction sectors.
He, however, said mining and quarrying, information and communication, agriculture, forestry and fisheries as well as financial and insurance sectors posted the highest growth in the third quarter.
Nigerian multinational group, Dangote Plc, has operated a multi-billion dollar cement manufacturing plant in, Ndola, Zambia’s second largest city, since 2015 thereby helping to boost the country’s economy.