Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has observed that 2014 was characterized by a number of unfortunate events for Zambia that even saw the depreciation of Zambian Kwacha against major currencies to as low as K7 to US$1 dollar.
And the center has also observed that the year was plagued by an upsurge in the prices of the staple food maize which is used for production of mealie meal.
According to a statement issued to QFM News today, the JCTR notes that the cost of living kept rising as the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) after consultation with stakeholders, in June 2014 approved ZESCO’s application to vary and adjust electricity tariffs by 24% for domestic consumers and 15% for commercial consumers.
The JCTR notes that this adjustment affected manufacturers’ cost of production and on account of the increase in the cost of production, the manufacturers transferred the cost to consumers.
The statement furthermore states that the December 2014 Basic Needs Basket for Lusaka stood at K3, 905 which shows a marginal increase of K210 from November 2014 that stood at K3, 694.
It says this can be attributed to increase in the cost of food items such as Kapenta which increased by K67 from average unit cost of K71 to K139 per kg, dry fish increased by K34 from K90 to K124 per kg and beans which increased by K16 from K16 to K32 per kg.
The JCTR also notes that there was some negligible reduction in the total cost of onion from K14 to K9 and Charcoal from an average unit cost of K153 in November to K151 in December.