Zambia’s annual inflation for October has decreased to 21.1 percent from 22.1 percent recorded last month.
Zambia Statistics Agency Acting Statistician General Mulenga Musepa has attributed the drop in inflation to price reductions in both food and non-food items.
He said food inflation decreased to 28.1 percent from 29.6 percent in September.
He has pointed to foods such as Cereals like Breakfast Mealie Meal, Roller Mealie Meal, Maize grain, imported rice and bread flour, and meat products among others.
Musepa said non-food inflation also decreased to 13.2 percent from 13.6 percent last month.
Meanwhile, Musapa says Zambia’s trade value decreased by 11 percent to 27.7 billion kwacha from 31.3 billion in August.
He says the cumulative Total Trade recorded from January to September 2021 was 273 point 5 billion kwacha while the total trade recorded in 2020 for the same period was 165.7 billion kwacha, indicating a 65.1 percent increase.
Musepa added that a 4.8 billion kwacha trade surplus was recorded last month indicating a 22.5 percent increase from the August 2021 surplus of 3.9 billion kwacha.
He said the increase in the Trade Surplus was driven by the decrease in imports which outweighed the fall in exports.
The ZAMSTAT Acting Statistician General was speaking during the release of the agency’s monthly statistics in Lusaka today. Znbc