…other macroeconomic performance indicators also nose-dive
Finance and National Planning Minister Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane has disclosed that agricultural output is projected to decline by 19% in 2024, alongside reduced productivity across all economic sectors due to electricity rationing.
Presenting the supplementary estimates of expenditure for 2024 to parliament on Friday, Musokotwane said that the severe drought, “arguably the worst in nearly 60 years of the country’s existence”, has brought about a significant loss of crops and threatened the country’s food security.
He underscored the devastating impact of the drought on agricultural production levels, emphasizing that livestock diseases and many other areas of the economy have also been severely affected. A situation that poses a significant threat to the country’s food security.
“As a result, the real GDP growth has been revised down to 2.3 percent from an earlier forecast of 4.7 percent,” he told Parliament.
Explaining the other macroeconomic factors affected, Musokotwane said first-quarter inflation averaged 13.5%, compared to 12.9% in the last quarter of 2023. By May 2024, annual inflation rose to 14.7% from 13.8%, spurred by high food prices.
He said as a result, food imports necessitated by the country’s food situation, had pushed the current account balance to a deficit of 0.2% of GDP, against a projected surplus of 3.7% of GDP.
Musokotwane reassured the house that the government was in the final stages of facilitating the importation of maize by private sector players and the Food Reserve Agency. This is a necessary step as local farmers are unable to fully meet the country’s total maize demand.
“The locally produced maize plus the maize to be imported shall be enough to meet the country’s requirements,” he assured.
The government has also allocated K460 million for heightened livestock disease control and to ensure sufficient surveillance and vaccines to curb dry spell-prone livestock diseases.
“The allocation will also cater for the protection of grazing areas and rangelands for livestock and wildlife as well as facilitating the provision of supplementary feeding for the animals.”
Musokotwane has presented the government’s K41.9 billion supplementary budget in response to the emergency brought about by a severe drought that has swept through Southern Africa. Nearly 48% of Zambia’s 20 million population is negatively affected, with more than 1 million hectares of cultivated crops destroyed in 84 out of the country’s 116 districts.
