By Amos Sikaonga 
By Cecilia Chiluba
An Economist has attributed the stability in annual inflation rate to the steady flow of food on the market being harvested from the farming season.
According to data from the Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats), annual inflation rate for April 2025, remained unchanged at 16.5%, due to price movements in non- food items.
Speaking in an interview with Money News, Partner Siabutuba noted that as a result of the harvesting season, the scramble for cheap ZNS mealie meal has reduced.
“It was anticipated that inflation will not significantly change, if it changed, the expectation was that it was going to reduce. What was going to make it come down was because of the availability of food harvesting that is currently going on.”
“These different factors would have contributed to the slow down especially in the rush for food because usually, food inflation has a huge bearing on the overall inflation. So because of stable supply of food and availability of food on the market, that is why we have seen this stability in the inflation,” Mr. Siabutuba noted.
Mr. Siabutuba stressed the need for government to potentially push the inflation rate down in a bid to reduce the cost of living.
He said if there is availability of food on the market, consumers expect to see some movement in the general cost of living so that food prices on the market can reduce.
“So alongside the reduction in inflation, in itself, it will not make any meaning but if we begin to observe the reduction in the cost of living, then you will begin to make sense out of it,” he said.
Cecilia Chiluba