The American Central Intelligence Agency -CIA- has ranked Zambia’s economic performance in 2009 as number 15 in the world.
According to the CIA fact book which gives data on all countries, Zambia’s 6.3 percent growth rate in 2009 was the 15th best in the world.
Zambia’s performance was far much higher than that of regional economic giant South Africa, whose negative one percent growth in 2009 was ranked at number 145.
Zambia like many other countries in the world experienced the effects of the Global Financial Crisis during the period in question, but managed to register substantial economic growth.
[ ZNBC ]
This is good news. We thank the Zambian people as well as the MMD govt for being resilient during the worst crisis since the Great Depression.
Well done.
that’s crap! The CIA fact book is full of incorrect data. I am sure this kind of data makes the comedy of errors inc. feel better!!!
What would one say when you are dealing with an “economic hitman”?…
Watch the pace.
ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING,the zambian economy hasnt traded that bad.i think its wrong for poeple to link economic emprovement to the Dollar Kwacha ratio.having a week kwacha can help in improving the domestic economy as producers and exporters can sell a countries commodity exports cheaply in comparison to other countries such as copper.In the long run this will lead to econmic growth and improvementn of the stand of leaving of many people in the country.Zambias archivements would have been boosterd even more if the govt worked on curbing corruption.
This is an incorrect analysis. The performance was good, but to say it was the 15th best is a stretch of the imagination. To illustrate; purpose you have k100. You engage in some business and earn an extra k100. You have registered a 100% growth in your wealth. Your neighbour has k10000 and manages a return of 10% on his investment. Are you going to boast that you did better than him? This is what this report is saying.
Have the CIA been to UTH lately where patients were sleeping on cold slabs,have they been to Westen Province were people eat boiled green mongoes for lunch, do they even know that farmers are failing to get rid of their maize…I dont think most Zambians are that gullible to believe this crap
PF kaponyas with their usual Sata pocus-pocus abracadabra nonsense of more money in your pocket as long as you can insult will now say the entire Fed entity has been corrupt. The question for all PF kaponyas here if at all they have brains is; with Zambia’s pro industrial development policies, what is good for the country in advent of this economic take off? Is it a strong or weak kwacha? What are pros and cons? Lets debate.
A prophet is respected everywhere else but his own country…could this be the case for the governments performance in the past year? When negative reports are done by other media on Zambia we are quick to embrace it, let us embrace positivity, and build on what has already been achieved, remember even Sata will not be able to turn around Zambia in just ten years, he will need this foundation.
I’m not an economist but common sense will tell me that the least developed countries will almost always record high rates of growth because their economies are so tiny. # 5 Splaka, you have illustrated this well. Even if we hypothetically recorded 100% GDP growth rate, and a big economy like South Africa recorded a -1% growth rate, I doubt if the general standard of living in Zambia would catch up to the general standard of living in South Africa. Would the CIA fact book be a good reference to use to assess how well a country is doing economically?
Zambian economy is on auto pilot. cost of living in zambia is just too high. The common man is not feeling this growth in the economy. What is the price of a litre of petrol in zambia?
Since when did the CIA become an authority in evaluating world economies?!!!!
Hard to believe anything the CIA says nowadays. This is the same agency that failed to get the facts straight concerning Saddam Hussein’s WMD. And this is supposed to be what they are good at. Now you what me to believe their nonsense about world economics? These are the same people who said Saddam had the capabilities to launch WMDs within minutes, and now they are saying Zambia was 15Th worldwide in economic performance last year, WOW! Does anybody see any similarities in how outlandish CIA pronouncements can be? Don’t get carried away folks. Take this news with a pinch of salt, lest you get fooled again!!
Zambia may have done better, YES! But 15Th worldwide?!! Give me a “bleeping” break!!!!
but the MMD said they dont believe in foreign judgements why are they so happy about the CIA report??
This report is rubbish. it belongs to the bin!!!
Since when did the CIA start issuing statements on economic performance? This is cheap propaganda by one Dickson Jere. LT please check your stories for fact before coping & pasting!
# 12 well side.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha. is it already 1 april? Please Shikapwasha stop cracking my ribs am trying to add another child hahahahha. This is hilarious who came up with this ridiculous nonsense? Already militia spokespersons are trying to put a spin to a lie. hahahahahahaha you cant just make it up.
Well, is this how zambians have become allergic to any positive news about their own country?They don’t want to read about any new roads, hospitals etc being opened in zambia,and they’re getting mad at CIA writting something positive about their country.Not long ago they were mad at IMF when the international fund commented that zambia’s economy is doing well.What’s really wrong with you people kanshi?I know you want Sata to be president of zambia but in the unlikely event that Sata became our republican president, what sort of news do you expect to be generated about your country that will be making you happy?I know it’s painful for the opposition to accept this truth but the earlier they accepted it the better.Economically,zambia is improving and destined to do even better.
Senior Citizen, are you a government worker in da US?? or are you part of the team that made this report????
if there was growth, it would have been seen. we dont need to be told.
even if this sh.it is true then the MMD guys are enjoying it on there own.
On “The American Central Intelligence Agency -CIA- has ranked Zambia’s economic performance in 2009 as number 15 in the world,” I hope this has nothing to do with the American Building being built in Ibex Hill part of Lusaka, Zambia.
It appears that the USA is not critical of Zambian President RB’s MMD Administration of GRZ for some reason — may be the so-called Africon Military thing that caused late President LPM to say
something like ‘Zambia will not offer USA sanctuary’ in being a launchpad for US military activities n Africa.
On another note, I find it immature for the news writers to have tried to humiliate South Africa over nothing.
Be blest all.
_
Matt 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added…
There nothing that Hates so much like the TRUTH,
All Anti-MMD don’t like this, they are in great Paid, Extremely Great Pain. The Next Organization to praise Zambia will Be The World bank, And European Union. Then the PF Cadres will be again in Great Pain,
How does it feel!!!!!!!!!
The CIA factbook has the most up to date and reliable information on each country’s performance in the world. It is good to see that the economy is improving in Zambia. Our GNP, GDP and GDP per capita is growing. This is good news. I know the Post and the opposition don’t see this. I’m not MMD but i will say good job RB
And is this how ignorant some bloggers are about CIA publications? From since before any bloggers here came into existence, CIA has been publishing this kind of data about all countries.Those of you who don’t know, for example, the size of zambia, the languages spoken in zambia,the vegetation of zambia etc you can go to the CIA Fact Book and see all such information displayed for public consumption.They know more about zambia or any other country than the natinals themselves know.You’re at liberty to doubt the credibility of CIA data because I guess you also have other sources of data to choose from such as the post newspaper of zambia, radio icengelo of kitwe etc.
hahaha @11 no yambayamba what they are good at is making everyone believe WMD existed when they knew fine well themselves that they didnt, lol telling people they are about to die horrible deaths has been used to groom ppl into a policy/faith/ideal for centuries,
The fact is that Zambia grew by 6.3% in 2009. However this does not mean that Zambia has a strong economy but rather mesures the performance of the economy. Take an example of Japan – a developed country which has an annual growth of less than 1%…..what does this entail? Malawi which grows at almost 10% annually…….does it mean there is more development in Malawi than Japan? Normally the economic growth pattern is that the developing countries grow more than the developed one. So Zambia can be 15th and this not be disputed because it does not depict the size of the country’s economy and hence nothing special. Thanx
Isn’t it amazing that people who are supposed to be investigating crime are now dealing with world economies. Be careful with such reports. Its common knowledge that Zambia is sulking and for some organisation with a tented reputation to say we are doing, I find that strange.
The truth shall set you free…… Zambia’s economy grew by over 6% last year, well thats good and i think CIA based there findings on this economic indicator. RB has not stagnated the economy as a matter of fact. In short he is not as bad as we thought he would be. However its just the fact that The POST has an interest to reclaim there defunct zambian airways, if SATA comes into power as he has promised them so. lets critise RB based on fact, not with prejudices.
Really! since when did the CIA start publishing zambia’s economic growth rating? Zambia just has close to 13m people. If we rate zambia based on the flow of foregn investors in,then its correct. However, only two mining firm r contributing to the GDP -Lumwana & Kansanhi. The rest (Indian & Chinese)actually have a negative effect on the struggle to improve this standing. If zambia’s economy is doing well, we should stop seeing people layed off in masses. The GDP improvement may lay in the fact that most zambians have left the formal sector & r now engaging in informal form of work due to the unleashing of funds by banks on huge interest rates. This only entails that the few that have access to contracts. There r many people in zambia engaging in contractual work but that is limited to few
CIA is synonymous to criminal investigations and not economic performance analysis.It is ironical to downgrade South Africa at 145 with only negative one drop in GDP.It doesnt make sense.Where was Zambia prior to attaining position 15?Was SA at somewhat in the hundreds?This statistical authority must be clarified by LT.
interesting stuf
also show how insignificant our economy is in the world market
According to sub Saharan regional ranking,SA is at 51,while Zambia is at 89.This makes abit of sense.Now,2007 ranking gave Zambia a 105th position globally(CIA raking).Tell me,in two years,what miracle has happened for Zambia to jump to 15th best in the world at average growth rate of 6%?Tell me,what growth is it when you have these indicators;Public debt $1 billion,Revenues $1.688 billion, Expenses $1.866 billion?Already your debts plus expenses disadvantages you.Whats is this 15?
PF kaponyas think that CIA has been given brown envelopes by RB from the sell of Zamtel. Honestly, if the statement from CIA had been negative, the same guys who have got their knickers in a twist now would have been jumping for joy and saying ‘I told you so’ to MMD supporters. Yesterday there was a big debate on whether the progress we are seeing in the country now is the result of RB or the late LPM. To me this highlights the fact that the MMD administration is producing results which will only make it harder for RB to be dislodged as republican president next year. Therefore I understand the cynicism and the need to downplay any good news as regards the Zambian economy on the part of PF thugs.
The biggest danger of PF kaponyalism is failure to think outside the box and graduate from a mentality that individual and national success impinges on being employed by corporations and government entities.They overlook the fact national progress in contemporary economic order is driven by an entrepreneurship spirit in the country. Zambia is no exception to the entrepreneurship spirit that has engulfed us now driving this phenomenal change. Many nations across the globe are seeing similar growth in their small business sectors. A variety of competitive, economic, and demographic shifts have created a world in which “small is beautiful.”
Capitalist societies depend on entrepreneurs to provide the drive and risk taking necessary for the system to supply people with the goods.
Take it or stay in your insulting club of PF culture, Zambians’ interest in the entrepeneurship has hit a record high and the future of an ownership society entrepeneurship has brough looks incredibly bright give that the recent years of MMD capitalism has seen record numbers of entrepreneurs launching businesses. sufficice to say zambians have come to understand that their country not an exception, the world’s largest corporations continue to engage in massive downsizing campaigns, dramatically cutting the number of their employees on the payrolls. It is this furry of pink slips that has spawned a new population of ingenueous entrepereneurs except dogmatic PF kaponyas counting on Sata’s bracadabra free money in the pocket mantra.
Suffice to say Zambians have come to understand that their country not an exception, the world trend is that largest corporations continue to engage in massive downsizing campaigns and survival is a personal initiative now.
The paradigm shift of ownership society MMD has created has seen these castoffs from the then large inefficient parastatals where many thought they would be lifetime ladder climbers now turning into valuable entrepreneurs. I personally support this economic order because entrepreneurs have common desire for responsibility, a preference for moderate risk, confidence in their ability to succeed, desire for immediate feedback, a high energy level, a future-directed orientation, skill at organizing, and a valuing of achievement over money. In a simple phrase I call them, “tenacious high achievers” triggering these gains whose data the CIA has captured and reported. This country is on the path to greatness though PF kaponyalism will remain in a squarer of poverty due its dogmatism.
All along i have been thinking the “living in a box” thing is MMD rule which r others do not see coming & fold there hands within their conforts. PEACE. RB is enrout RSA,Mozambique & God knows where!
that’s not true..get the real facts from the people who live here and what we go through..whoever came up must have been bribed..don’t listen to what musokotwane tells you..come to zambia..
I’m seeing a lot of ignorance here from those that seem surprised that the CIA has information on economic development of other countries. The CIA Fact book has been published since 1962, so this is not new, they have been doing this for decades. They have the most up to date information on each country in the world for policy decisions, aid allocation and also for investigating economic crimes.
I suspsect B.en Kangwa is Misleading us here, he is the Press Secretary at the zambian Mission in the US…Can he please comment in the name of Senior Citizen…or Mwata.
LOOK U STUPID IGNORANT PF SUPPORTERS RB AINT GOIN NOWHERE WE WILL MAKE SURE OF THAT. WE WANT PEACE NOT TRIBALISIM. UR SATA IS A GOOD OPPOSITION LEADER NOT A GOOD PRESIDENT. SO IF I WERE U I WOULD STOP FLOODING THESE BLOGS WITH HATE………….COS U ARE PROBABLY MMD SUPPORTERS INSIDE HAHAHAHAHA
The report above does not mention PF imwe ba Senior Citizen. You must be ashamed of yourself looking at the way you are introducing hatred into the thread.
Zambians are not interested in figures but results i.e good hospitals, good roads, education and not voter registration and three affordable meals. The examples I have given are still a dream unless one is a beneficiary of tax payers.
# 39, Kindly stick to the subject so that we read about how intelligent you are. Writing about PF, MMD, UNIP or, NADA is not the objective of LT. Please promote peace by not throwing stones when you are in a glass house.
there seem to be some very srange characters on the blog,you have all sorts of bootlickers (mmd) going by all sorts of names yaah……awe mwe
I now understand why our government controlled media is being accused of being vuvuzelas. A journalistic worth his salt is supposed to balance his story.What the author deliberately left out was that the same CIA report says Zambia has the THIRD HIGHEST death rate in the world and the SECOND LOWEST life expectancy at 38 years in the world. Despite Zambia enjoying peace countries which have been at war are better off than we are. The 6.3% economic growth will not mean anything if it doesn’t translate in reducing mortality levels and improving life expectancy. Who is going to enjoy the economic growth if people die early???
@ 8 Fact. Thank you very much. I believe as a peole we need to wean ourselves of the negativity about our country. Negativity does not change the world. The other day a British friend that had just arrived from the UK was taken aback when a taxi driver told him there are tourist spots in Zambia worth visiting as there are no roads. This is a person who had been reading in the Lonely Planet that the South Laungwa National park is one of the best destinations in he world. He arrives here and a taxi driver tells him there is no road!
Correction to @ 8 Fact. Thank you very much. I believe as a peole we need to wean ourselves of the negativity about our country. Negativity does not change the world. The other day a British friend that had just arrived from the UK was taken aback when a taxi driver told him there are NO tourist spots in Zambia worth visiting as there are no roads. This is a person who had been reading in the Lonely Planet that the South Laungwa National park is one of the best destinations in he world. He arrives here and a taxi driver tells him there is no road!
ok this is good so RB is working eh
The CIA are partly right and partly wrong. Right because they have contributed to the growth by the building of the new American embassy in Ibex Hill which could be a 3 billion dollar building. This could explain why both Lusaka airport and the road has pot holes. Wrong because they don’t seem to have travelled on the Zambian roads country wide and in townships.
# 47 Frontline
US$3bn American embassy in Lusaka or do you actually mean $3bn defunct Zimbabwean dollars!
You PF guys, why have you abandoned your usual line of argument? Just state your usual line that the CIA was given some brown envelopes. These PF detractors have been planted on LT to mislead unsuspecting bloggers into thinking that the PF is in the majority. This is plain to see from their baseless arguments which show that they don’t even believe what they write themselves. What pleases me most is that they are now overwhelmed with facts, statistics, and visual evidence of development in Zambia. When this blog started you would be worried that MMD is headed for a disastrous electoral defeat. But since we took the fight to them with facts and concrete evidence, they are surely disappearing into the crevices where they belong. Please do and we shall spray you nice and dead.
People of Zambia let us get a few things straight. The disappointment we express or should be expressing need not be along party lines. Yes the MMD has failed under a number of Presidents and so did UNIP, matter of fact it is more likely that the PF will too if we do not change a number of things as a nation. I guess the bottom line is we are a failed state, and the statement does not spare a single Zambian, because what we have failed to do is use the resources we have to translate to a better life for most. So then ask yourself, if what we fail at is the translating the ample resources we call our own into meaningful things like education for all, quality health care and poverty elimination then what does it matter where we rank in terms of growth?
We have a situation where Chinese demand determines our “growth” coupled with soaring levels of corruption, preventable mortality, poverty, illiteracy and so goes the list; yet we celebrate and bicker over whether or not RB should receive credit for rains, copper prices and nonsense. So to my MMD sell outs, cheap propaganda will not secure Zambia’s future, transparency, innovativeness and regard for education and health will. My opposition die-hards, MMD removal alone will not get Zambia there, rather we need to change the constitution, change the culture and empower ourselves through a demand for less power to be afforded to the president and his puppies. And Mr. Capitalist, you forgot to thank the Chinese demand for Copper. If numbers are what we go by they alone deserve the credit.
Facts are very stubborn things! Govt opponents may wish to alter the truth, but fact always stand. FACT: THE ZAMBIAN ECONOMY IS GROWING. FACT: NOT EVERY ZAMBIAN CAN FEEL IT. What we should be discussion is HOW can we as a nation make sure that ALL Zambian have the opportunity to benefit from this growth and NOT whether or not the economy is growing. Becaus it is GROWING. cheap politiking or insults will NEVER help us.
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