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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