By Derrick Silimina

The Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) has announced that annual inflation for April 2026 continued its downward trajectory, falling to 6.8 percent from the 7.1 percent recorded in March.

This ‘single-digit’ trend which began in January at 9.4% reflects the stabilization of food and non-food prices and provides much-needed breathing room for the Zambian household.

“This means on average prices of food items increased by 7.3 percent between April 2025 and April 2026. This was mainly attributed to price movements in prices of food items such as Cereals (Breakfast Mealie meal, Roller mealie meal, Maize grain, Rice imported, Wheat Plain Household Flour); Oils and Fats(Butter, Peanut butter, Cooking oil); Vegetables (Chinese Cabbage, Okra, Green Beans, Pumpkin, Maize cobs, Dried beans, Sweet potatoes) and Eggs,” ZamStats Statistician General Sheila Mudenda said in a statement.

Mudenda further highlighted that the annual non-food inflation for April 2026 was recorded at 6 percent compared to 5.9 percent in March 2026.

She noted that this outturn was mainly attributed to price movements in prices of nonfood items such as Pharmaceuticals Products (Cafenol, Aspirin, Paracetamol, No cough, Magnesium Trisilicate); Domestic (Lusaka-Ndola) and Regional AirFare(Lusaka to Johannesburg); Accomodation services (Single room 3 & 5 star, Bed and Continental Breakfast, Bed (Single room in guest house).

Meanwhile, economic analysts say Zambia records a third consecutive drop in inflation, officially bringing the rate deeper into the Bank of Zambia’s medium-term target band of 6 – 8 percent in a bid to stabilise prices of goods across the country.