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ZamStats Releases Key Statistical Developments for January 2025
The Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) today 30th January 2025 released its first Monthly Statistics Bulletin for 2025 at its headquarters in Lusaka, with members of the media in attendance. Speaking at the briefing, the Acting Statistician General, Mrs. Sheila S. Mudenda, provided insights into the inflation trends and export performance for January 2025.
Mrs. Mudenda revealed that the annual inflation rate for January 2025 remained steady at 16.7 percent, the same as recorded in December 2024. She explained that this indicates that the prices of goods and services increased by 16.7 percent over the 12 months between January 2024 and January 2025.
She further noted that annual food inflation rose to 19.2 percent in January 2025, from 18.6 percent in December 2024, reflecting an increase in rate at which prices for food products moved. This was mainly attributed to increases in prices of food items such as Bread and cereals (Breakfast Mealie Meal, Roller Mealie Meal, Maize grain, Samp, Rice Local, Rice Imported, Bread, Bun, Bread Flour Imported); Meat (Rump Steak, Brisket, Mixed Cut, T-bone, Beef sausage, Mince Meat, Ox-liver, Offals, chicken live, Chicken frozen); Fish(Frozen Fish, Buka Buka, Fresh Kapenta, Dried Bream-Medium Sized-Opened, Dried Kapenta Mpulungu, Dried Kapenta Siavonga, Dried Kapenta Chisense); Eggs and Sugar.
However, non-food inflation showed a decline, dropping to 13.2 percent in January 2025 from 14.2 percent the previous month.
Highlighting regional disparities, Mrs. Mudenda reported that Central Province recorded the highest annual inflation rate at 23.1 percent. On the other hand, Northern Province registered the lowest annual inflation rate at 12.4 percent.
In addition to inflation trends, Mrs. Mudenda indicated that Zambia recorded a trade deficit of K3.3 billion in December 2024 compared to a Surplus of K1.1 billion recorded in November 2024. She also shared updates on Zambia’s refined copper export performance and stated that export earnings of refined copper decreased by 2.8 percent, dropping from K20.4 billion in November 2024 to K19.8 billion in December 2024.
The Acting Statistician General concluded the briefing by thanking the media for their continued coverage and support. She highlighted that the monthly bulletin, which provides a comprehensive overview of key economic indicators, is held every last Thursday of the month.