Zambia Statistics Agency (ZAMSTATS) says the annual inflation rate for November 2020 has increased to 17.4% from 16.0% in October 2020.
ZAMSTATS Interim Statistician General Mulenga Musepa explained the increase has been driven by increases in both food and non-food prices.
Mr. Musepa noted non-food inflation has increased to 18.2% from 17.7% in October 2020 and food inflation rose to 16.8% from 14.6%.
“In terms of contribution to Annual inflation, Food and Non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 9.0 percentage points, while non-food items accounted for 8.4 percentage points,” Mr Musepa said.
He further revealed that the Year- to- date inflation has been recorded at 15.6% in November 2020 and monthly overall inflation at 2.2% from 1.3% in October 2020.
Meanwhile, Mr Musepa disclosed that Zambia has recorded a Trade Surplus of over K6 billion in October 2020 compared with surplus of K7.3 billion in September 2020.
ZAMSTATS Interim Statistician General Mulenga Musepa says exports which mainly comprise of domestically produced goods, decreased by 7.9 percent to K15, 344.1 million in October 2020 from K16, 656.0 million in September 2020.
Mr Musepa further revealed that Imports decreased by 4.5 percent to K8, 843.2 million in October 2020 from K9, 261.6 million in September 2020.
“A Trade Surplus of K 6,500.9 million was recorded in October 2020 compared with surplus of K7, 069.3 million in September 2020,” he said.
The Interim Statistician General said this decline in imports was mainly as a result of a 29.1 percent and 20.0 percent fall in imports of Consumer goods and Raw materials respectively.