• The Kwacha has been depreciating because of high levels of demand for foreign currencies.
• There have been more interventions from Bank of Zambia to moderate the pace of depreciation.
• Going forward, the Kwacha is expected to continue trading weaker

An Economist has attributed the current depreciation of the Kwacha to high levels of demand for foreign currencies compared to supply.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Dr. Patrick Chileshe said as a result, the Bank of Zambia has been intervening to moderate the pace at which the Kwacha is depreciating.
Dr. Chileshe stated that the local unit is expected to continue losing strength largely due to high levels of demand.
“The Kwacha of late has been depreciating largely because of high levels of demand for foreign currencies compared to supply. So what has happened is that we are seeing more and more interventions from Bank of Zambia to try and moderate the pace at which it is depreciating.”
“So going forward, we still expect the Kwacha to continue trading weaker largely because of high levels of demand,” Dr. Chileshe said.
He added that the high demand for convertible global currencies is as a result of importers who are looking to import goods into the country and also those who are buying inputs for production.
On Friday 10th December 2021, the local currency was trading between 15.90 and 16.21 against the US dollar, and in today’s early morning trading, the US dollar is buying at K16.35 Ngwee and K16.66 ngwee respectively.