{"id":31715,"date":"2022-09-21T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars"},"modified":"2022-09-21T14:45:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T14:45:04","slug":"zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars","title":{"rendered":"Zambia Kwacha, Hakainde Hichilema Soars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>When he first came into office, almost a year ago, Zambia\u2019s new president was ridiculed by skeptics who called him, \u201cthe calculator boy,\u201d for his strong focus on the economy and his background as an accountant.<\/p>\n

Looking back now, it\u2019s evident that these were the exact skills that Zambia needed to pull itself back from the economic mess it was in at the time, having become the first African country to default on repayments during the pandemic. Since he became president in August last year, Hakainde Hichilema has steered the economy towards stability.<\/p>\n

The inflation rate is under control. The Zambian Kwacha has stabilized and is getting stronger against major foreign currencies. Zambia is rising and ultimately the cost of living will be fixed.#UmuntuKuJoba#JomboIlile pic.twitter.com\/mfAuU0CZzB The Zambian kwacha is the best performing currency in the world against the US dollar, rallying over 18.5% from Jan. 22 to Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

While continental peers South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya have been unable to control rising inflation and plunging currencies, Hichilema\u2019s government has managed to reduce the inflation rate from 24.4% in August 2021 to 9.7% in June this year.<\/p>\n

Zambia\u2019s economy<\/b><\/p>\n

What could be Zambia\u2019s secret in shining in economic areas where almost all countries in the world are struggling? A raft of both monetary and fiscal measures, according to the Policy Monitoring and Research Centre in Lusaka, the capital.<\/p>\n

Kwacha has been rallying against the US dollar<\/b><\/p>\n

When the government\u2019s monetary policy committee met last November, it decided to \u201craise the monetary policy rate by 50 basis points to 9%.\u201d The rate remains unchanged till now. The ultimate goal is to reduce inflation to between 6% and 8% by mid 2023 and a decline in inflation had been achieved when it met again in May 2022.<\/p>\n

To support agriculture and livestock, the government also removed 5% customs duty on the importation of cattle and chicken breeding. The rate of rise of food prices fell from 12% in July to 11.3% in August. Challenges still prevail though in the mining sector, which contributes 10% to the country\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n

Restructuring Zambia\u2019s debt<\/b><\/p>\n

An agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restructure Zambia\u2019s debt, a $1.4 billion bailout package has seen the Kwacha strengthen against the US dollar and helped contain the rate at which prices were rising due to supply-chain disruptions emanating from the war in Ukraine and ravages caused by the covid-19 pandemic. The IMF board approved a $1.3 billion 38-month loan to Zambia on Aug. 31 in addition to another $1.3 billion special drawing rights allocation from the fund it received in August 2021.<\/p>\n

Economist Patrick Chileshe says the other reason why the Kwacha has been gaining against the US dollar is increased forex supply. To guard against the volatility in the exchange rate, the central bank was offloading an average of $13 million per day in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen the Kwacha gain strength, and that was driven by increased foreign exchange supply to the market by the Bank of Zambia which was consistent in the market, whereas the demand for US dollars has been low and that led to the appreciation of the Zambian Kwacha,\u201d Chileshe explains.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. When he first came into office, almost a year ago, Zambia\u2019s new president was ridiculed by skeptics who called him, \u201cthe calculator boy,\u201d for his strong focus on the economy and his background as an accountant. Looking back now, it\u2019s evident that these were the exact skills that Zambia needed to pull […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":31714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-31715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nZambia Kwacha, Hakainde Hichilema Soars - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When he first came into office, almost a year ago, Zambia\u2019s new president was ridiculed by skeptics who called him, \u201cthe ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zambia Kwacha, Hakainde Hichilema Soars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When he first came into office, almost a year ago, Zambia\u2019s new president was ridiculed by skeptics who called him, \u201cthe ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-21T14:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-21T14:45:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_3-632b2348e5a3e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Zambia Kwacha, Hakainde Hichilema Soars\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-21T14:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-21T14:45:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars\"},\"wordCount\":541,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_3-632b2348e5a3e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/zambia-kwacha-hakainde-hichilema-soars\",\"name\":\"Zambia Kwacha, Hakainde Hichilema Soars - 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