New Heritage Party faults Hichilema’s economic policies, warns Zambians to prepare for rise in cost of living
market operations by the Central Bank was not a good idea.
She stated that the appreciation of the Kwacha needed to be anchored in solid economic fundamentals due to growth in production.
Without economic growth through productivity, Kateka said, the Kwacha remained vulnerable.
“Of course the inflation will be artificially low and the exchange rate will appear to be stable in the short term. However, this action will not result in lower prices of goods and services because these will be determined by supply and demand.
“This preoccupation of controlling inflation at the expense of expanding industrial productivity will ultimately result in a weaker currency, prone to the economic vagaries of factors beyond our national control,” she said.
Kateka said Zambia should be adopting an expansionary rather than a contractionary path.
“As things stand, we can expect to see more escalation of prices of almost all essential goods and services including fuel, mealie meal, cooking oil and so on despite the inflation rate being at “single digit” she said.
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Tukalashita mwe! Bushe nimwe mwingabwesha?
The problems we are facing in Zambia now are being experienced by every country in the world. It’s even worse in the developed world. Don’t listen to Ba Mwankole! They have nothing to offer. We are lucky they are not in-charge otherwise things will be 20 X worse than what they are now. They went and borrowed money that they shared amongst themselves. Where’s the money for universities in Luapula & Kasama. What happened to Mkula? Do you hear them propose anything tangible? They want relationships with China because they know Zambians can make a mistake and vote for them and it will be easy for them to continue stealing because Chinese loans are shielded in secrecy.