Zambia’s inflation rate leapt to its highest level in almost two years in December as the currency’s worst depreciation since the country became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign defaulter in 2020 raised the cost of imported goods like cereals and meat.
Consumer prices climbed 13.1% from a year earlier, compared with 12.9% in November, Statistician-General Mulenga Musepa told reporters in Lusaka, the capital, on Thursday. That brings the average for the year to 10.9%, in line with the central bank’s forecast. Costs rose 1% in the month.
