By Derrick Silimina

The Zambia Statistics Agency says the annual inflation rate for August 2025 has decreased slightly to 12.6 percent from 13 percent in July 2025, indicating that on average, the prices of goods and services increased by 12.6 percent over the twelve months up to August 2025.

In a statement, ZamStats noted that this development was attributed to price movements in both food and non- food items adding that annual food inflation for August 2025 was recorded at 14.9 percent compared to 15.3 percent in July 2025.

“This means that food prices, on average, increased by 14.9 percent between August 2024 and August 2025. The price movements were mainly driven by cereals (including breakfast maize meal, roller-meal maize, maize grain, rice), fruits (bananas, lemons, apples, pineapples), fresh milk, and eggs,”said ZamStats Acting Statistician General Sheila Mudenda.

On the non-food side, Mudenda further revealed that inflation declined slightly from 9.7 percent in July 2025 to 9.3 percent in August 2025, primarily due to changes in prices for spare parts and accessories.

“This outturn was mainly attributed to price movements in prices of non-food items such as spare parts and accessories (Car Tyre-Radial, CV joints, Shockabsorbers); Passenger transport by air; Fuel (petrol & diesel) and Paraffin.”