By Cecilia Chiluba/Zambia/Lusaka
Zambia recorded a trade surplus of K0.6 billion in November 2025 compared to the surplus of K1.1 billion recorded in October 2025.
Exports mainly comprising domestically produced goods, declined by 8.6 percent from K30.8 billion in October 2025 to K28.1 billion in November 2025.
This was mainly on account of decreases in export earnings from Intermediate goods by 7.5 percent, Raw materials by 27.8 percent and Capital goods by 20.1 percent.
According to Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats), Imports decreased by 7.3 percent from K29.6 billion in October 2025 to K27.5 billion in November 2025.
The Agency attributed the development to decreases in import bills of Intermediate goods by 8.7, Raw materials by 26.0 percent, Capital goods by 6.4 percent, and Consumer goods by 2.4 percent.
ZamStats Acting Statistician General Sheila Mudenda, revealed that the country’s Traditional Exports (TEs) mainly copper earnings, declined by 11.9 percent from K21.7 billion in October 2025 to K19.1 billion in November 2025.
Mudenda noted that in terms of share in total exports, TEs accounted for 68.0 percent in November 2025.
“Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) earnings decreased by 0.9 percent from K9.1 billion in October 2025 to K9.0 billion in November 2025. In terms of share in total exports, NTEs accounted for 32.0 percent in September 2025,” she said.
She further stated that export earnings from refined copper decreased by 10.1 percent from K20.8 billion in October 2025 to K18.7 billion in November 2025.
Further, refined copper export volumes decreased by 8.9 percent from 83.6 thousand metric tonnes in October 2025 to 76.2 thousand metric tonnes in November 2025.
Further, copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) market for the corresponding months surged by 1.0 percent from US$10,696 per metric tonne in October 2025 to US$10,800.8 per metric tonne in November, 2025.
Meanwhile, Zambia’s Annual rate of inflation for December 2025 rose to 11.2 percent from 10.9 percent recorded in November, on account of price movements in non-food items such as garments and passenger transport by air.
According to ZamStats,the overall monthly inflation rate for December 2025 stood at 1.5 percent compared to 0.7 percent recorded in November 2025, largely due to price movements in selected non-food items.
