• The trend has been the same.
• The Kwacha continues to come under pressure.
• There are indications that the Kwacha could continue sliding downwards.

A Financial Analyst says the Kwacha has continued to come under pressure due to high levels of indebtedness.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Mambo Hamaundu said, last week, the currency lost strength against major convertible currencies, noting that the trend has continued into this week.
Mr. Hamaundu revealed that there are indications that the Kwacha could continue sliding downwards although not significantly.
He added that the demand pressures are still in existence and they are largely contributing to the devaluation of the currency, noting that this is as a result of high levels of indebtedness which is putting a lot of demand pressure on government.
“The trend has been the same. The Kwacha continues to come under pressure. Last week we saw the Kwacha losing strength and trading around 22.7 and the trending has continued coming into this week.”
“There are indications that the Kwacha could continue sliding downwards though not significantly but the demand pressures are still there and they are still contributing to this weakening of our currency primarily because of high levels of indebtedness which is putting a lot of demand pressure on government in terms of wanting to buy dollars,” Mr. Hamaundu noted.
And Mr. Hamaundu said with the rise in the price of Copper on the international market, the Kwacha would have been seen posting a bit of gain but this is not the case because the pressure factors are much higher than the supply factors from the Copper industry.
“I still expect the Kwacha to be under pressure despite the fact that the price of Copper on the international market has gone up, one would have expected that we would see the Kwacha posting a bit of gain but this is not the case because clearing the pressure factors are much higher than the supply factors which are coming from the Copper industry,” Mr. Hamaundu stated.
Meanwhile, a commercial bank stated that the Kwacha traded on the back foot on a close to close basis against the United States Dollar on Tuesday.
Absa Bank Zambia added that this is mainly due to rising demand from the Energy and Agriculture sectors that continued to characterize the foreign exchange market while supply still remained low.
The local unit has opened the market trading at K22.18 and K22. 61 respectively.