Zambia has recorded a trade surplus of K1.48 trillion, the highest earning buoyed by copper exports.
The earning from copper hit an astonishing 90 per cent of Zambia’s export goods in the month of January.
Zambia, which since January 2010 had been recording trade surpluses, last month took the good trading tides to a new level with a trade balance of K1.48 trillion, about K400 billion more than the best trade surplus recorded in March last year.
Central Statistical Office (CSO) deputy director for social statistics William Mayaka said in Lusaka that both copper and the National Traditional Exports (NTEs) recorded high surpluses.
He said while Zambia recorded a sharp increase in the export value, there was a reduction in the imported value which had resulted in positive figures on the trade balance.
“There has been an increase in the total value of traditional exports between January this year and December last year, this resulted in the country’s ever dominant metal products recording an increase in the revenue of about 13 per cent,” he said.
The K1.48 trillion trade surplus comes a month after Zambia registered an K898 billion surplus in December 2010 to close the year on a surplus of K8.98 trillion through the 12 months of positive trade balances.
Zambia’s export value for January this year was K3.6 trillion with copper’s K3.24 trillion being 90.7 per cent of the exports while in December last year, total export value stood at K3.23 trillion with copper contributing K2.8 trillion, which is 86 per cent of the total export earnings.
According to Mr Kayaka, Switzerland remained the major export destination for Zambian goods accounting for 62 per cent and the goods mainly being copper.
The second biggest destination is China accounting for 13.6 per cent with South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the UK coming third and fourth.
For the imports, Zambia reduced on the goods brought into the country, the import value falling to K K2.09 trillion for January this year from the K2.3 trillion registered in December 2010.
Zambia’s major import commodity remained heavy duty mining machinery and parts with South Africa being Zambia’s major source accounting for 30.4 per cent of the import value.
DRC features second with mining products like copper ore and concentrate, which are brought into Zambia for processing, accounting for 27.4 per cent export value.
China was third largest import source with mining machinery, cell phones and cables among the imports and contributing just 7.2 per cent while India and the United Arab Emirates being fourth and fifth. They make up 4.2 per cent and 2.8 per cent of the imports respectively.
So how much has Zambia benefited from this trade increase? Because if this increase is mainly from copper exports then forget it we have got nothing and it is worthless to even talk about it. Period.
#1, not quite that simple. The volume of tax revenue from variable profit tax will increase as long as profits increase.
Whats does that surplus got to do with us nomal people? How about telling us how many jobs have been created e.g in the last quarter instead of this useless stat. Lazy chestnuts they go for simple-to-come-up-with figures.
#2, as much as you are right, look at the Mopani scenario for instance, where they are declaring inflated bogus figures in terms of costs what profits are they going to declare. Nothing my friend. And mopani might not be the only mining company falsifying figures. This might just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
“Central Statistical Office (CSO) deputy director for social statistics William Mayaka said in Lusaka that both copper and the National Traditional Exports (NTEs) recorded high surpluses.” end quote.
I like that NTE are recording high surpluses. This shows that the economy is diversifying. Hats off to Mr. Mutati for this. Overall this is good news. Hopefully with the development of other trade avenues like the Kasumbalesa one stop border post, STRs, Chipata-Muchinji railway and NWR, we’ll see higher surpluses in NTEs.
Would you kindily explain to us what other products Zambia exports to other countries, apart from the diminishing raw copper; we want proper exports rather than the unfinished products which donnot create enough jobs for Zambians
#3 msana wanzili, those are important figures which are announced for those who understand and can make use of them in business. If you are of humble education like me, and you want simple basic easy to understand economic indicators like jobs created, don’t worry CSO can still give you that information.
#4 you may be right, but lately you may have noticed from the news that monitoring mechanisms are being formulated and/or strengthened. I am also aware that the unit cost of production for the old ex-ZCCM mines are higher than the newer ones due to the old equipment and technologies that were inherited from ZCCM. The need to invest in modernisation is one of the arguments against windfall tax. The topic is obviously complex and there are pros and cons, and as one economist friend told me “..there is no right or wrong answer…, it depends on what you want to achieve, your ideology and most certainly the individual and collective opinions of groups of economists….”
# 8 i have followed you sober analysis and contribution. just having 10% of gloggers like you enducate many including myself. Even though i am comfortable with the figure by CSO i would urge them to be giving the monthly job reports both in the private and public sectors. but make no mistake the zambia economy with just just these figure continues to appear attractive for investment for people like me. the pursuit of the current economic policies should be encouraged. going with this i hope cost of importation of non mining equipment can also come down so that other sectors
th
China exported nearly 5 billion Toys in 2007-2010, 45 percent of which went to the US. Chinese enterprises only obtained 0.35 US dollars for each toy, while American companies earned nearly $8 for each the same toy. To the Chines,this is trade surplus,but who was the winner at the end of the day,,,make a wild guess
we gained road damages and environmental pollution… that’s all
thumps up ZED…..this is good.But what really is the cause of the reduction in the imports?Is it because the ordinary Zambian is getting poorer and poorer to afford imported stuff or what? As far as i aa concerned, Zambian lacks the capacity to produce most of the things that we need, even stuff like a pair of shoes, ordinary dishes, cars, and so on….so how is it that why we continue to produce the copper, we are still not able to afford to import the goods?…As far as am concerned, the increase in copper exports should lead to more jobs that should lead to more money in peoples pockets. With that in mind we should see an increase in imports as ZED lacks a manufacturing capacity at the moment….or opening up of more manufacturing stores…..
Alunta continua…..
This is NOT as good as it appears. When I studied at UNZA in the 80’s we did alot of essays on the economy, and one statistic that i still remember was the high contribution of copper to every economic indicator. The contribution of copper towards exports in the 1980’s it was around 90%. Over 20 years later, it is still around 90% and desktop analysts like Capitalist #5 can claim that the economy is diversfying! Get real, if the price of copper declines or if production was to drop owing to natural or other circumstances be assured that Zambia would be in trouble; just like in the Kaunda years.
While it is good to record a trade surplus, the overwhelming dominance of copper at 90% is not good for the country. Zambia need more of other exports that relate more closely to people’s welfare, like agro-products. This copper will make the kwacha too strong and can cause a “Dutch Disease”, in which other sectors suffer.
The trade surplus could be much higher if we are adding value to the copper by exporting finished copper products. I don’t see why we should be importing cables from China when we can be manufacturing them for national, regional and International consumption and in the process of doing that, jobs can be created. With Zambia’s long history of mining, by now we should have been assembling mining machinery if not manufacturing. Zambia is much wealthier than what meets the eye.
# 13 your concerns are reasonable. the truth is that the zambian economy though now contributing more of non copper trade, it has not diversified enough. but for the first time there is a since effort to allow other sectors of economy to contribute. but diversifying the economy is not an easy job. it requires us as a country to take hard choices not just short cuts and the usual failed policies like gov being at the center of running business, being the major job creator and constant pouring of tax money in failing projects like NCZ, FRA and sustaining a generally large gov. we need to relegate gov to a supervisory and monitoring role and to look after people that cannot look after themselves. gov needs to create first an economy that does nor encourage consumption like at present.
CSO statistics have no real bearing up and until they translate into meaningful benefits to the local economy. With 90% cooked up revenues coming from Copper, it just makes sense that Copper contributes a bigger percentage to the budget of this Conutry.
There is a big disconect which needs to be rectified, how can such a commodity accounting for 90% of total exports account for less than 2% to the national budget. Is it due to corruption
Iwe Zambian#13 Kanshi wali Monko in the 80s! I was a Mojo at that time and I wish we could meet now. I’m sure we would know each other. Nevertheless I agree with what you and #14 say. The problem is we have had supervisors for political leadership rather than innovators. Zambia needs leadership that will have a lot of initiative and willpower. With our resources we can effect a Marshall plan for alternatives to mining. In our lip service we have spoken about diversification to agriculture for 47 years but up to now agriculture’s contribution is nearly zilch. Our economy doesnt need to be supervised. It needs to be used to turn things around.
MMmm intresting indeed
#18 i think you have misunderstood me. i was talking about the role of gov. in the past gov has been a major player of the economy and in our lives and has neglected ist supervisory role. that should be the role of gov. for example gov should overlook the finanacil institutions such as banks, insurance companies not to excessively risk our our money. not themselves sqeezing out competitors using our money. for education if gov notices that the private sector is not making any investments in education they come in and offer incentive for they to start investing accordingly, if health facitlities are not performing well they gov for example can exempt import duty on medical equipment or drugs. these are just examples. the passing of a law to protect consumers and enforcement of it is the go
The surplus trade news is always a welcome news. Even if it is not fully understood by most people take it from me, it is good news. However, I was of the impression that copper has always been our traditional export as a nation and that we are now, by virtue of improved economic activity exporting some of our non tradtional products (NTEs). Most of our non traditional exports include Agricultural products etc. Even though maize is our traditional(stapple crop) it still falls within our non- traditional exports bracket.