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· There is an inflationary spiral in Zambia. Agricultural products beef, fish, and chicken have continued to drive the prices of food upwards in June 2021 while non-food items remained comparatively low
· The southern African country’s annual inflation for June, 2021 increased to 24.6 percent from 23.2 percent in May, 2021
· Inflation increased by 24.6 percent between June 2020 and June 2021
There is an inflationary spiral in Zambia. Agricultural products beef, fish, and chicken have continued to drive the prices of food upwards in June 2021 while non-food items remained comparatively low . The southern African country’s annual inflation for June, 2021 increased to 24.6 percent from 23.2 percent in May, 2021. Inflation increased by 24.6 percent between June 2020 and June 2021.
Zambia Statistics Agency stated during the monthly presentation on Thursday 24 June that annual food inflation for June, 2021 was recorded at 31.2 percent compared to 28 percent in May, an increase of 2.7 percentage points.
Increase in prices of food items such as Meats (Fillet steak, Rump steak, Brisket, Ox-liver, Offal’s, Goat meat, Chicken Frozen, Chicken Live); Fish (Fresh Kapenta, Dried Kapenta Mpulungu); and Coffee, Tea and Cocoa (Instant) Coffee Prima, Instant Coffee, Tea bags, Cocoa.etc contributed to increase in prices. Live chicken recorded the highest year on year inflation rate at 75.12%.
Meat products like Brisket, rump steak, mixed cut, fillet steak, kidneys and goat meat year on year inflation was between 23% to 55%. Fish products like fresh Kapenta was recorded at 58.9 % while dried Kapenta Mpulungu year on year inflation was at 21.32%. Meat prices generally have escalated across most types. The Food and Non-alcoholic beverages group contributed 16.7 percentage points of the inflation. Non Food items accounted for 7.9 percentage points to the overall inflation rate of 24.6 percent,
The monthly inflation rate for June, 2021 was recorded at 1.3 percent, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from 2.0 percent the previous month. The slow-down in the monthly inflation rate was attributed to reduction in prices of both food and non-food items.
