{"id":103981,"date":"2025-08-28T21:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T21:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/103981\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T21:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T21:31:07","slug":"zambias-economy-gets-to-a-level-it-has-not-experienced-in-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/103981\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambia\u2019s economy gets to a level it has not experienced in two years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n        Sheila Mudenda, the Acting Statistician-General, reported that consumer prices increased 12.6% in August, down from 13% in July.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        Food inflation, the primary driver of household spending pressures, fell to 14.9% from 15.3% the previous month, while non-food inflation slowed to 9.3% from 9.7%. Monthly costs increased by only 0.5%.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        The decrease in inflation comes as Zambia, Africa&#8217;s second-largest copper producer, benefits from a jump in copper prices.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        Looking ahead, the Bank of Zambia expects inflation to return to its 6-8% target range by the first quarter of 2026, with an average rate of 13.3% in 2025.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        If the country\u2019s currency, the kwacha, continues to perform well and copper prices remain high, the government may experience a much-needed period of price stability, which would encourage growth while alleviating the burden on consumers.\n    <\/p>\n<p>        Zambia\u2019s recent gains<\/p>\n<p>\n        The global thirst for Zambia\u2019s copper has bolstered the kwacha, which is expected to increase by over 19% versus the US dollar by 2025, making it one of the world&#8217;s best-performing currencies tracked by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-08-28\/zambia-inflation-slows-to-near-two-year-low-on-stronger-kwacha\" id=\"7fdd05f7-b999-42b2-8074-a623f8bb5402\" data-link-role-code=\"open_new_tab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bloomberg<\/a>.\n    <\/p>\n<p>                    <img width=\"790\" height=\"428\" alt=\"Zambia plans $1.1 billion oil refinery in copperbelt to cut fuel imports\" title=\"Zambia plans $1.1 billion oil refinery in copperbelt to cut fuel imports\" class=\"image lazyloaded imgWithMetaData\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'790'%20height%3D'428'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-original=\"https:\/\/ocdn.eu\/pulscms-transforms\/1\/GoDktkpTURBXy81NWJlOTE2ZTFhYjFjMTQxNjcyNTc4OTI2ZWI1N2VhNy5qcGeRlQLNAxbNAazCww\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>\n        The stronger currency has helped lower the cost of imports, from petrol to food, directly reducing inflationary pressures throughout the economy.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        Additionally, Zambia recently signed a landmark deal to establish <a href=\"https:\/\/africa.businessinsider.com\/local\/markets\/zambia-plans-dollar11-billion-oil-refinery-in-copperbelt-to-cut-fuel-imports\/cs2ffe2\" id=\"1cbf6ba3-741f-4297-af93-c9a831cadecb\" data-link-role-code=\"open_new_tab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a $1.1 billion crude oil refinery<\/a> and energy complex in Ndola, located in the country\u2019s copperbelt region.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        The planned facility is expected to process up to 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day, enough to cover the full domestic fuel demand and allow future exports to neighboring nations.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2025, with the first phase of commercial operations targeted for 2026.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        Given Zambia\u2019s fast resources, and the fallout between Sahel states in West Africa and its former Western partners, reports indicated that Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold Corporation is ramping up its <a href=\"https:\/\/africa.businessinsider.com\/local\/markets\/canadian-miner-shifts-focus-to-zambia-with-dollar2-billion-investment-deal-amid-mali\/p821wm4\" id=\"7998325c-3b45-4e3c-97e3-7154cb65058f\" data-link-role-code=\"open_new_tab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">investment in Zambia with a $2 billion<\/a> expansion plan.\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheila Mudenda, the Acting Statistician-General, reported that consumer prices increased 12.6% in August, down from 13% in July.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-103981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}