By 
Zambia’s annual inflation rate for March 2025 eased to 16.5 percent, down from 16.8 percent in February,according to the latest report from the Zambia Statistics Agency.
The country’s trade deficit widened by K0.3 billion in February 2025.
This means that, on average, the prices of goods and services increased by 16.5 percent between March 2024 and March 2025, driven by price movements in selected food items.
Read more: Zambia’s annual inflation edges up to 16.8% in February 2025, driven by food price hikes
Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) Acting General Statistician, Sheila Mudenda, announced the figures during the publication of the March Monthly Bulletin in Lusaka on Thursday.
She revealed that annual food inflation dropped to 18.9 percent in March 2025, compared to 20.6 percent in February 2025.
This decline was attributed to price reductions in key food items such as bread and cereals, including breakfast mealie meal, roller mealie meal, maize grain, and samp, as well as vegetables like lumanda, cassava leaves, impwa, pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes, and chikanda tubers.
Non-food inflation, however, rose to 13.2 percent in March, up from 11.7 percent in February.
Mudenda attributed this increase to rising costs of motor vehicles, fuels and lubricants (diesel and petrol), passenger transport by road, charcoal, and hammer milling charges.
In terms of provincial contributions, Lusaka Province recorded the highest share at five percentage points, followed by Copperbelt at 3.8 percentage points.
Central and Southern Provinces contributed 2 and 1.5 percentage points, respectively, while North-Western Province had the lowest contribution at 0.6 percentage points.
The monthly food inflation rate for March was 1%, significantly lower than the 3.4 percent recorded in February.
Mudenda attributed this decline to general price reductions in bread and cereals, including maize grain and imported rice, as well as dried fish such as bream and kapenta from Siavonga.
On trade performance, Zambia’s trade deficit widened to K0.6 billion in February 2025, up from K0.3 billion in January.
Exports, which mainly consist of domestically produced goods, dropped by 4.2 percent, falling from K26.0 billion in January to K24.9 billion in February.
This decline was driven by lower export earnings from intermediate goods (down 4.4 percent), consumer goods (down 7.6 percent), and raw materials (down 0.8 percent).
Imports also fell by 3.1 percent, from K26.3 billion in January to K25.4 billion in February, due to reduced import bills for intermediate goods (down 3.7 percent) and consumer goods (down 9.8 percent).
Total trade for the period January to February 2025 stood at K102.6 billion, reflecting a 28.4 percent increase from K79.9 billion during the same period in 2024.
The total value of exports via all transport modes for January to February was K50.9 billion, with road transport accounting for 97.2 percent (K49.4 billion).
Air transport followed with K1.2 billion (2.3 percent), while rail transport was the least utilized at K0.3 billion (0.5 percent).
While the slowdown in inflation offers some relief, the widening trade deficit highlights ongoing economic challenges, particularly in the export sector.
WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.
Comments