“The dollar is killing us,” said Ben Mwandila, who sold 15 imported blankets a month last year for a 50 kwacha ($2.75) profit per sale but is now selling only two or three.
A weak kwacha has stopped inflation falling in recent months, which officials and economists blame in part on Zambia’s struggles to complete a debt restructuring since it defaulted on its debts in 2020, as well as on disappointing copper output.
“Bondholders who had invested in our local markets and whose bonds or whose investments are maturing are getting the money out and are not reinvesting,” said Natalie Mwila of the Centre for Trade Policy and Development, a Zambian think-tank.
“It’s putting pressure on our local currency … which obviously also has raised the cost of living.”
The kwacha had strengthened from above 22 per dollar in July 2021, just before president Hakainde Hichilema took power, to as low as 15.4 kwacha per dollar in September 2022, boosted by…
Read More
