Trade deficit gap widens by 63.5 pc

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 13:22:25 +0000

By MAILESI BANDA

ZAMBIA in January recorded a trade deficit of K275.6 million from K754.2 million, representing a 63.5 percent decrease from December 2016.

This means that the country imported more in January 2016 than it did this year.

There was an increase of 21.9 percent in the total value of metal exports from K4, 583.8 million in December 2016 to 5,586.2 million in January 2017.

The overall contribution of metals and their products to the total exports earnings in December 2016 and January 2017 averaged 80.3 percent.

Non-traditional exports marginally decreased by 8.9 percent from K1, 296.2 million in December 2016 to 1,180.6 recorded an average of 19.7 percent in revenue earnings between December 2016 and January 2017.

Meanwhile, the volume of copper exhibited a fluctuating trend between January 2016 and January 2017, with the highest volume of 99,456.66 metric tonnes recorded in January 2017 and the lowest volume of 65,633.3 metric tonnes recorded in August 2016.

And the corresponding price of copper on the London Metal Exchange registered a steady increase between January and March 2016 from USD 4,462.75 per metric tonne to USD 4,855.79 per metric tonne in July 2016.

However, between August and September 2016 the price of copper registered a marginal decline from USD 4,707.18 per metric tonne before recovering to US $5,443.25 per metric tonne in November 2016.

A steady increase was noted from November 2016 to January 2017 with prices going at US $5, 666.25 per metric tonne and US $5,737.43 per metric tonne respectively.