Inflation slows down to 6.2% for August

By Doreen Chembe Annual inflation for August 2026 has slowed to 6.2 percent from 6.5 percent recorded in July 2026. Zambia Statistics Agency ZAMSTATS Acting Statistician General, CHOLA DAKA, says this means that, on average, prices of goods and services increased by 6.2 percent between August 2025 and August 2026. Speaking during a media briefing, Dr. DAKA said the development was mainly attributed to price movements in food items, particularly cereals and mealie meal. She said annual non-food inflation also slowed to 6.6 percent in August from 6.7 percent in July, mainly due to price movements in non-food items such as fuels and lubricants. And Dr. DAKA has revealed that Zambia recorded a trade surplus of 4.1 billion Kwacha in July 2026, slightly lower than the 4.2 billion Kwacha surplus recorded in June. She said exports increased by 0.1 percent, from 29.6 billion Kwacha in June to 29.7 billion Kwacha in July 2026. Dr. DAKA said the increase was mainly driven by higher export earnings from raw materials, capital goods and consumer goods. She reveals that Traditional export earnings, however, decreased by 2.9 percent, from 20.4 billion Kwacha in June to 19.8 billion Kwacha in July. Traditional exports accounted for 66.7 percent of total exports in July. She says Refined copper export earnings decreased by 4.5% from 20 billion Kwacha in June, 2026 to 19.1 billion Kwacha in July, 2026. Non-traditional export earnings increased by 6.5 percent, from 9.3 billion Kwacha to 9.9 billion Kwacha, accounting for 33.3 percent of total exports.