Zambia’s foreign exchange position has further been boosted by yet another trade surplus for the month of July 2021. The country recorded a trade surplus of K3.6 billion (about US$218 million) in July 2021 compared to a surplus of K5.7 billion in June 2021 indicating a 36.1% decrease.
Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats), interim statistician General Mulenga Musepa said exports mainly comprising domestically produced goods, declined by 5.1% to K18.5 billion in July 2021 from K19.5 billion in June 2021.
Mupesa said during the ZamStats monthly bulletin attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that this was on account of decreases in export earnings of Raw materials, Consumer goods, Capital goods and Intermediate goods by 17.8 , 14.7, 3.4 and 2.7%, respectively.
He said the imports increased by 7.6 % to K14.9 billion in July 2021 from K13.8 billion in June 2021 as a result of a 20.1 and 16.9 % increase in import bills of Consumer goods and Capital goods respectively
“Traditional Exports (TE’s) which are Copper related export earnings increased by 3.7% to K13.4 billion in July 2021, up from K12.9 billion in June 2021.
“In terms of share in total exports, TEs accounted for 72.5 % of export earnings in July 2021,” Mupesa said. He said Non Traditional Exports (NTE) earnings decreased by 22.5% to K5.1 billion in July 2021 from K6.6 billion in June 2021.
Mupesa said in terms of share in total exports, NTEs accounted for 27.5% of total export earnings in July 2021. He said export earnings from refined copper in July 2021 increased by 3.9 % to K13.4 billion from K12.9 billion in June 2021.
Mupesa said the increase is attributed to the 4.5% increase in export volumes from 60.2 thousand tonnes in June 2021 to 62.9 thousand tonnes in July 2021.
“Copper prices on LME market for the corresponding months decreased by 1.9 percent to US$9,433.6 per tonnes in July 2021 from US$9,612.4 per tonne in June 2021
“The volume of refined copper exported for the period January to July 2021 was 510.0 thousand tonnes while that of 2020 for the same period was 501.8 thousand tons representing a 1.6% increase,” he said.
The cumulative total trade for the period January to July 2021 was K214.7 billion while that of 2020 for the same period was K117.1 billion, representing 83.3% increase.
Mupesa also said agricultural products accounted for a share of 37.2 % of Zambia’s NTEs in July 2021 compared to 30.2% in June 2021.
He said export earnings from agricultural products decreased by 4.8 %to K1.9 billion in July 2021 from K2.0 billion in June 2021.
The major export commodities were Oil-cake of soyabean accounting for 14.1 percent, Tobacco, not stemmed/stripped (12.1%) and other raw cane sugar (11.4%).
Mupesa said the Non-agricultural products accounted for a share of 62.8 % of Zambia’s NTEs in July 2021 compared to 69.8% in June 2021.
“Export earnings from non-agricultural products recorded a decrease of 30.2% to K3.2 billion in July 2021 from K4.6 billion in June 2021.
“The major export commodities were Sulphur of all kinds accounting for 7.9 percent, Rubies, sapphires and emeralds (7.3%) and Ferrosilico-manganese (7.0 %),” he said.
Zambia’s major export products in July 2021 were from the intermediate goods category mainly comprising copper anodes for electrolytic refining and Copper blister accounting for 81.1%.
Exports from the consumer goods, raw materials and capital goods categories, collectively accounted for 18.9% of total exports in July, 2021.
The major export destination in July 2021 was Switzerland, which accounted for 37.9% of the total export earnings with the main export product being copper anodes, accounting for 53.7% of total export earnings from that country.
Singapore was the second main destination of Zambia’s exports accounting for 18.8% of the total export earnings with the major export product being copper anodes, accounting for 70.9% of total export earnings from that country.
China was the third main export destination accounting for 14.4% of the total export earnings and the major export product was copper anodes, accounting for 46.3% of total export earnings from that country.
Congo DR was the fourth main export destination accounting for 10.1% of the total export earnings and the major export products were, Sulphur of all kinds accounting for 13.6% of total export earnings from that country.
South Africa was the fifth main export destination accounting for 2.7 % of the total export earnings with the major export product being Bullion semi-manufactured forms (gold) accounting for 21.0% of total export earnings from that country.
These five countries collectively accounted for 83.9 percent of Zambia’s total export earnings in July, 2021.
