Zambia’s government projects a 7% rise in spending in next year’s budget, the Finance Ministry said this Monday during public hearings ahead of the official budget presentation.
Total expenditure is projected at 271.9 billion Zambian Kwacha ($13.8 billion) next year
Revenue is expected to increase by about 6% to 218.6 billion Kwacha ($11.1 billion).
Next year’s borrowing is seen at 44.9 billion Kwacha ($2.3 billion), 37.3 billion ($1.9 billion), which is domestic and 7.7 billion ($391 million) external. That is up from 34.5 billion ($1.8 billion) of borrowing this year
Economic growth is expected to reach 5.3% this year, below the 6.4% projection made when the 2026 budget was presented a year ago.
Copper output is expected to rise to 1.08 million metric tons in 2027, 1.25 million tons in 2028 and 1.40 million tons in 2029. Copper output was 890 346 metric tons in 2025, missing the target of 1 million tons.
–Reuters–
