By News Desk 
Zambia’s currency, the Kwacha, has demonstrated resilience against the US Dollar, maintaining a positive trajectory with a bias towards appreciation throughout the past week.
The Kwacha closed the week ending Friday 6th June 2025, at its strongest level against the US Dollar since July 10, 2024, at K24.58 and K24.90 on the bid and offer respectively.
According to financial experts, this marked a remarkable appreciation that saw the local currency strengthen by 5.3% last week and an impressive 9.17% since the start of the year.
In recent months, the local unit was threatening to reach the 30th mark but has since rebounded strongly, trading at K24.69 and K25.11 today Monday, 9th June, 2025.
Financial market players have attributed the current appreciation to market sentiment and short-term trading activities rather than deep, structural economic improvements.
Partly, payment of mining tax obligations has indirectly supported the Kwacha’s appreciation by reducing the demand for dollars in circulation.
Financial Analyst Trevor Hambayi noted that around June, most multinational organizations and other entities pay their tax obligations and are required to offload their hard currency from their revenue to be able to have the Kwacha to settle their taxes.
Mr. Hambayi explained that this move tends to reduce the demand for US dollars on the market and increases supply.
“The Kwacha’s appreciation is linked to the issue of supply and demand. Fundamentally around this period which is June, most of the multinationals as well as other entities are having to be able to meet their mid-year tax obligations.”
“Most of the corporates are multinationals and they require to be able to offload the hard currency from their revenue to be able to have the Kwacha to meet their tax obligations. This then reduces the demand and increases the supply,” Mr. Hambayi explained.
He added that the country has enough hard currency to create stability in the macro-economic sector.
And Investment Expert Munyumba Mutwale noted that the primary concern revolves around the lack of robust fundamental support for the Kwacha’s gains.
Despite a recent re-rating towards a more positive economic outlook and favorable external factors such as improved copper prices and depressed crude oil prices signaling cheaper oil imports, the data on trade surpluses remains underwhelming.
“The last two months have only seen $17 million trade surpluses, nowhere near the record US$300 million to US$400 million we saw in 2021/2022 record trade levels.”
“Strong trade surpluses are crucial for building foreign exchange reserves and providing fundamental backing for a stable and appreciating currency,” Mr. Mutwale noted.
He further observed that significant foreign exchange inflows into the bond and stock markets, which typically provide substantial support for currency strength, have yet to materialize in sufficient volumes.
Cecilia Chiluba 
Joseph Tembo