Cost Of Living Rises Again In April – JCTR

The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has recorded a further increase in the cost of living, with the price of feeding a family of five in Lusaka rising by K99.39 in April.

In March the JCTR’s Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket cost some K8,644.50 but has now risen to K8,743.89.  

The JCTR points to the rising costs of a number of food staples, including the price of 40kg of vegetables increasing by K60.71 and the cost of 5kg chicken rising by K45.53. 

Non-food items have also gone up in price, with a bag of charcoal costing K14.80 more than it did in March.

JCTR’s social and economic programme manager, Chama Bowa Mandia, has called on the government to enhance incentives for local food production, in order to drive down the cost of living, which has continued to skyrocket in recent months. 

She also called on politicians to provide economic stability in the leadup to the general election in August.

“A positive social and political outlook is important for economic stability. Stability of the nation’s macroeconomic indicators in particular is critical in seeing constancy in prices of both food and non-food essentials,” she said.  

Zambia’s cost of living has been driven up and up in recent months as a result of spiralling inflation, which reached 22.8% in March. This inflation makes Zambia’s currency less valuable and commodities more expensive by comparison. 

Economists believe this inflation is in turn due to Zambia’s dire debt situation. The government owes in excess of $12 billion to foreign lenders and in November last year became the only African country to default on its debts during the pandemic, after missing an interest payment worth $42.5 million on its Eurobonds.

Opposition leader and presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema has called this debt “unsustainable” and has laid the blame for it solely at the feet of the Patriotic Front (PF) government.  

“They created the debt crisis” and “they don’t know how to come out of it,” he told AFP. 

Zambia’s total debts – including domestic debts – now stand at around $20 billion: more than twice the level when the PF took power in 2011.