April 2009 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: The Global Economic Crisis Manifests Worsening Social Crisis, Reveals JCTR

The JCTR Basic Needs Basket (BNB), a simple but concrete tool that measures the cost of living for a family of six in Lusaka and other towns, reveals that the cost of mealie meal has continued to rise. For the month of March 2009 in Lusaka, on average a 25 kg bag of mealie meal cost K64,000 indicating a nominal increase of K4,000 from the K60,000 recorded in February. Increments were also recorded in beans, meat and cooking oil. However, reductions were recorded in kapenta, dry fish and vegetables. Despite the price decline in some food items, the total cost of food still amounted to a large amount of K766,500. Essentially, the slight reduction in food costs is unlikely to lighten the burden at the household level as the cost of essential non-food items increased by K21,800 from K1,425,630 in February to K1,447,430 in March. The main contributor to the increase was charcoal which rose from K57,500 to K67,000 per 90 kg bag. The total cost of the Lusaka March 2009 BNB therefore totalled K2,213,930. It is important to highlight that the total BNB does not take into account the cost of important essential non-food items such as transport, health and education