• Inflation has risen the highest that it has in over 5 years, it’s at 21.5 percent, which is very high.
• We have seen that prices in our supermarkets for everyday products are going up.
• It will be very important for BoZ to lay out their plan for stabilizing inflation, maintaining stability of the foreign exchange rate.

An Economist says he expects the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) to lay out a plan for stabilizing inflation rate and maintaining stability of the foreign exchange rate between the Kwacha and the Dollar as it announces the Monetary Policy Rate tomorrow.
Trevor Simumba noted that that last month the country recorded the highest inflation rate in over 5 years, at 21.5 percent which has resulted in increased prices for everyday products in most supermarkets, while the Exchange rate has become quite volatile in the last one month.
Mr. Simumba, who is also Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Chairperson for Economic Affairs, said the Central Bank must state what they are doing to intervene in the market.
Meanwhile, Mr. Simumba stated that he also expects the Central Bank to explain the country’s implication in terms of the deal that was recently signed between ZCCM-IH and Mopani Copper Mines, whether it will positively affect the economy or not.
“Some of the major issues I will be looking out for tomorrow is to see exactly what our situation is when it comes to the key macro indicators. We know that inflation has risen the highest that it has in over 5 years, it’s at 21.5 percent which is very high. We have seen that prices in our supermarkets for everyday products are going up.”
“Now it will be very important for the Bank of Zambia to lay out their plan for stabilizing inflation, their plan for maintaining stability of the foreign exchange rate between the Kwacha and the Dollar, it has become again quite volatile in the last one month or so and we need to know what they have been doing to intervene in the market. Have they been taking reserves or are they receiving an input of foreign exchange from the Mining sector for example,” Mr. Simumba said.
He added that BoZ should also give information on the country’s continued debt accumulation and its position regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
“I think that it is very important that the Bank of Zambia is transparent in its approach, we need verifiable data, also data on our debt that we continue to accumulate, and some direction from the Bank of Zambia in terms of some direction, what is their position in terms of the IMF program, what are we going to target? We still have a huge external debt headache but more importantly we still have a huge domestic debt headache especially arrears to the business sector,” he said.
The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) is tomorrow 17th February, 2021 expected to announce the quarterly Monetary Policy Rate (MPR).
At its August 17-18, 2020 meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) lowered the MPR by a further 125 basis points to 8.0% to safeguard the stability of the financial sector, people’s lives, and livelihoods in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.