By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –

ZAMBIA recorded the highest trade deficit valued at K310.3 million in March this year, while the annual rate of inflation remained unchanged at 7.2 per cent.
The Central Statistical Office (CSO) in its monthly briefing said the March trade deficit shot up in comparison to the February deficit which was recorded at K107.3million.
The decline represented a 189.2 per cent trade balance, with CSO acting director Daniel Daka informing a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the development entailed that the country recorded more imports than exports during the month under review.
“Since January 2015, Zambia has been recording trade deficits with the highest being recorded in March 2015 valued at K310.3 million,” he said.
Mr Daka said Zambia’s major export products in March 2015 were from the intermediate goods category mainly comprising copper cathodes and sections of refined copper accounting for 82.2 per cent.
Other exports were from the consumer goods, raw materials and capital goods, which collectively accounted for 17.8 per cent of the total exports in March.
”This implies that between February and March, the country has been a net exporter of intermediate goods, mainly metals and their articles, which on average accounted
for 81.1 per cent of the total exports,” he said.
Mr Daka said the annual rate of inflation for April currently stood at 7.2 per cent which was the same as the one recorded last month, meaning that on average prices increased by 7.2 per cent over the last one year.
“What you need to understand is that what was happening last month maybe different but the rate at which prices were changing is the same as of April 2015,” he said.
Of the total 7.2 per cent annual inflation recorded in April this year, food and non alcoholic beverage products accounted for 3.7 percentage points, while non-food products accounted for 3.5 per cent points.
The annual food inflation rate for April was recorded at 7.1 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent recorded last month, while annual non-food inflation rate for April this year increased to 7.3 per cent from 7.1 per cent recorded in March.
In terms of comparison of retail prices between March and April, this year, the national average price of a 25 kilogramme bag of breakfast mealie-meal decreased by 1.2 per cent from K70.61 to K69.74, while that of the 25 kilogramme bag of roller meal also decreased by 1.9 per cent from K53.93 to K52.89.