Zambia Records Drop in Food Inflation and Boost in Trade Performance – ZamStats
Zambia has recorded a drop in the monthly food inflation rate from 0.8 percent recorded in April to 0.6 percent in May.
The country has also recorded a decline in annual food inflation from 18.7 percent recorded in May 2024 to 17.9 percent recorded in May this year.
Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) Chief Statistician Chola Nakazwe Daka told journalists at a monthly bulletin in Lusaka today that the monthly food inflation rate for May 2025 was recorded at 0.6 percent compared to 0.8 percent recorded in April 2025.
Ms Daka said the average prices of goods and services increased by 0.6 percent between April 2025 and May 2025.
Regarding the annual food inflation, Ms Daka said, on average, prices of food items increased by 17.9 percent between May 2024 and May 2025.
She attributed this to movements in prices of food items like cereals, mealie meal, milk, vegetables, fruits, and sweet potatoes.
Ms Daka said ZamStats also recorded a decline in non-food inflation for May 2025 at 11.6 percent compared to 13.4 percent in April last year.
She attributed the outturn mainly to movements in prices of non-food items.
The ZamStats Chief Statistician further reported a 31.4 percent increase in total trade between January and April this year compared to the same period last year.
She said for the period January to April 2025, total trade was recorded at K214.7 billion, while that of 2024 for the same period was K163.4 billion.
The total value of exports via all modes of transport for the period January to April 2025 was reported at K106.9 billion.
Ms Daka said road transport accounted for the highest value at K102.2 billion, which represents a 95.6 percent share, while air transport was second at K2.8 billion (2.6 percent), and rail transport accounted for K0.6 billion or 0.5 percent.
Ms Daka said the total volume of exports via all modes for the period January to April was 2,472.9 thousand metric tonnes, of which road transport accounted for the highest volume with 2,049.6 thousand metric tonnes, representing 82.9 percent, while rail transport accounted for 3.9 thousand metric tonnes, representing 0.2 percent.
Air transport accounted for 1.7 thousand metric tonnes.
She said road transport accounted for the highest value with K56.0 billion, representing a 52.0 percent share, followed by air transport at K5.9 billion, which represents 5.5 percent.
Zambia also recorded a trade surplus of K0.49 billion in April 2025 compared to the surplus of K0.47 billion recorded in March 2025.
Exports, which mainly comprised domestically produced goods, decreased by 6.4 percent from K28.5 billion in March 2025 to K26.7 billion in April 2025.
This was mainly on account of decreases in export earnings from intermediate goods by 6.1 percent, raw materials by 10.5 percent, consumer goods by 3.3 percent, and capital goods by 10.4 percent.
Imports decreased by 6.6 percent from K28.1 billion in March 2025 to K26.2 billion in April 2025.
This was mainly as a result of decreases in import bills of capital goods by 20.0 percent, intermediate goods by 10.1 percent, and consumer goods by 3.3 percent.
