By VITA BANDA
Zambia Statistics Agency (Zamstats) statistician general Mulenga Musepa has reviewed that 2,231.8 million metric tonnes of imports were recorded for the period January to April 2023.
Mr Musepa said road transport accounted for 1,394.8 thousand metric tonnes, representing the highest share at 62.5 percent, followed by rail transport which accounted for 106.5 thousand metric tonnes, representing a share of 4.8 percent.
He added that air transport accounted for 2.6 thousand representing 0.1 percent, while other modes accounted for 728.0 thousand metric tonnes.
Mr Musepa explained that, the total value of Imports via all modes of transport from January to April 2023 was K65.7 billion.
He said road transport was the highest at K38.5 billion representing 58.5 percent share, followed by air transport at K3.0 billion representing 4.6 percent.
He said that rail transport was third at K1.4 billion accounting for 2.2 percent of the total import bill and other modes of transport accounted for K22.8 billion representing 34.6 percent.
“Imports decreased by 21.3 percent to K 15.6 billion in April 2023 from K19.3 billion in March 2023.
This was mainly as a result of 48.3, 16.4, 24.6 and 8.3 percent decreases in import bills of raw material, Intermediate goods, Consumer goods and Capital goods, respectively,” Mr Musepa said.
