Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Economic Association of Zambia has observed that though Zambia is this year celebrating its golden jubilee, much of its post independence economy has been characterized by inflationary turbulence especially prior to the year 2002.
Speaking in Lusaka today during the National Economic Advisory Council stakeholders validation seminar dubbed “Inflation and Growth; Estimating the Threshold level of Inflation in Zambia”, EAZ president Isaac Ngoma says from 2002, the country has seen the beginning of the general decline in the inflation rate citing 2007 when the country for the first time in 30 years recorded a single digit inflation a trend which has continued.
Mr. Ngoma notes that with the attainment of a single digit rate of inflation in Zambia, debate has raged on what is the optimal level of inflation above which the effect of inflation had a deleterious effect on economic growth.
He further states that it is important for policy makers to know the threshold within which the inflation rate positively affects economic growth, adding that the policy tool which will be developed by the stakeholders at the seminar would be critical to the development of appropriate interventions by government to ensure the positive relationship between the inflation rate and economic growth is sustained.
And Dr. Mushiba Nyamazana a researcher from the Institute of Economic and Research at the University of Zambia notes that of the country’s 50 years of independence, more than 30 years those had seen Zambia record either double or triple inflation.
Dr. Nyamazana says for most years of high inflation, the growth rate was either low or negative, stating that high periods of inflation usually coincided with either macro or international debt crisis.