Laura miti write…
Let’s start with fuel. Oil, right now, is very expensive on the international market because of the demand caused by the war in Ukraine. There is nothing anyone in the world can do about it.
We then move on to inflation. The simplest statement that can be made is that the higher the inflation the more prices are rising. In other words, single digit inflation means our prices are not as high as they could be had our inflation remained in the 20s.
Unfortunately, once prices go up, they don’t come down easily. I know that because some chronic medication I pay for, for a relative more than doubled when the dollar went to 22. It has never come down, despite the strengthening of the Kwacha. Sadly, it is almost certain that if the Dollar were to hit 20 next week, the medication will go even higher.
Think too of the tantrums minibus owners throw, when asked to reduce fares when fuel prices go down. Fares they raised because fuel prices had gone up.
Uncle Limbi, in short, our prices are most painful but much less punishing than they would have been had Musokotwane and Kalyalya not reined in inflation and controlled the dollar. If our inflation figures and dollar exchange were higher, our fuel increase would be even more.
Zambia is one of very few countries whose inflation is under control.
What we need to do, though, is find a way to feed those for whom current prices mean near starvation.