Zambia: Zambia records K1.48tn trade surplus

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