Govt maintains its economical projection

Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda

Government has maintained its projection of Zambia’s economy to hover around 3.7 percent this year against the budget projected growth of 7 percent.

Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda says this slow growth turn out is due to the expected continued adverse and unfavorable weather conditions the Country is forecast to have this year.

Mr. Chikwanda has told Parliament in a Ministerial statement this afternoon that the slow economic growth is also on account of continued power deficits and challenges associated to the Mine sector.

He says government has however taken stock of the economic challenges experienced in 2015 and has put in place measures to increase resilience of the economy to eternal and domestic shocks.

Mr. Chikwanda says in the Agriculture sector, for example, efforts have been stepped up in developing irrigation facilities and diversifying the sector away from maize production.

He notes that in the Mining sector the Mineral Royalty regime has been redesigned in order to ensure that operations of the mining companies are sustained and jobs are secured.