Zambia economic woes deepen

Zambia’s president Edgar Lungu is working to stabilize the economy which has been hit by severe power shortages, waning demand for copper mainly due to sluggish demand and rising inflation.

The currency has weakened by 40 percent against the dollar since January last year.

Analysts say the economic outlook for the country looks grim .

“People really are concerned about prices which have gone very high, inflation has risen very high. people are now talking about inflation 19 percent or so from just around seven to eight percent from when Edgar Lungu took office,” said Neo Simutanyi, an economic analyst at the Center for Policy and Dialogue in Zambia.

The country’s central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 15.5 percent, saying it was concerned with slowing growth in the continent’s number two copper producer.

Nonetheless there is a glimmer of hope as the economy is expected to recover to around 6.5 percent in the medium term.