The Zambia Statistics Agency recently released its monthly macroeconomic stats for September 2023, indicating that the economic growth was 5.0% in the second quarter of 2023.
The country’s GDP growth was 5.9% in the second quarter of 2022.
These estimates are based on the year-on-year comparison of GDP at constant 2010 prices.
The growth was mainly attributed to the positive contributions from the following industries: Information & communication (2.4% points), Education (1.7% points), Transport & storage (0.9% points), Financial & insurance activities (0.7% points), and Construction (0.5% points).
However, negative contributions were recorded from Wholesale & retail trade (-1.2% points), Agriculture, forestry & fishing (-0.5% points), Mining & quarrying (-0.3% points), and Administrative & support services (-0.1% points).
At the industry level, the highest growth rates in the second quarter were recorded in Information & communication at 25.6%. Other significant growth rates were observed in Education (24.5%), Accommodation and food service activities (21.9%), Arts, entertainment & recreation (20.2%), Transport & storage (19.5%), Human health and social work activities (17.3%), Financial and insurance activities (14.0%), and Electricity (11.3%).
Conversely, negative growth rates were observed in Agriculture, forestry and fishing (-7.0%); Mining and quarrying (-3.6%); and Wholesale and retail trade (-7.2%).
The Gross Domestic Product at current prices in the second quarter of 2023 was estimated at ZMW 133,186 million, compared to ZMW 121,977 million recorded in the same quarter of 2022. This is approximately USD 6.29 billion.
Of the ZMW 133,186 million, the industry with the highest share was Wholesale & retail trade (17.3%), followed by Mining & quarrying (13.7%), Construction (12.5%), and Transportation and storage (11.8%). Arts, entertainment, and recreation had the lowest share of GDP at 0.2%.
