• On average, prices of goods and services increased by 9.4 percent between January 2022 and January 2023.
• This was mainly due to the base effect of both food and non-food items.
• Annual food inflation for January 2023 was recorded at 11.6 percent compared to 11.9 percent in December, 2022.

Zambia Statics Agency (ZamStats) has disclosed that annual rate of inflation for January 2023 has dropped to 9.4 % from 9.9% recorded in December, 2022, representing 0.5 percent decrease.
Speaking at a media briefing, Agency Interim Statistician General, Mulenga Musepa said on average, prices of goods and services increased by 9.4 percent between January 2022 and January 2023, mainly due to the base effect of both food and non-food items.
Mr. Musepa stated that annual food inflation for January 2023 was recorded at 11.6 percent compared to 11.9 percent in December, 2022 while the non-food inflation for January 2023 stood at 6.4 percent from 7.3 percent in December, 2022.
“This development was mainly attributed to Meat such as Beef, Sausages, Mince Meat, Pork Chops, Frozen chicken, and Milk products such as Fresh Milk, Fresh Milk Super Milk, Sour milk, Powdered milk, Cheese, Fruits such as Oranges, Lemons, Apples, Avocados, Raisins; Vegetables; Spinach, Chinese Cabbage, Sweet Potato Leaves-Kalembula, Cassava Leaves, Okra, Cucumber, Impwa, Maize cobs, Tomatoes, Carrots, Onion, Mushroom, Dried beans.”
“The annual non-food inflation for January 2023 was recorded at 6.4 percent from 7.3 percent in December 2022. This outturn was mainly attributed to decreases in prices of non-food items such as Fuels & lubricants Diesel, Petrol, Lubricants,” Mr. Musepa disclosed.
He noted that on a monthly basis, retail prices between December 2022 and January 2023 showed that the national average price of a 25 kilogram bag of breakfast mealie meal increased by 5.67 percent from K171.72 to K181.46 while that of roller rose by 6.73 percent to K148.19 from 138.85
“Consumer price Index (CPI) for the housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels group increased by 7.0 percent between January 2022 and January 2023. This was lower than the 17.5 percent recorded in the same month of 2022 but higher than the 6.3 percent recorded in December 2022,” he added.