February 2006 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: Can the Kwacha Appreciation be Appreciated by the People? Asks JCTR

At the start of the new year (2006), the JCTR Basic Needs Basket (BNB) for Lusaka recorded the cost of basic food items alone at K506,100. This is a marginal decrease in food costs from K512,100 last month. If costs of non-food items such as housing, water, energy, soap, etc., are added, the total cost of the Lusaka Basic Needs Basket for January comes to K1,415,650, which is a notable increase from K1,368,700 in December 2005. The Basic Needs Basket is a monthly survey of essential food and non- food items for a family of six living in one of six urban areas across Zambia. At the end of January, the BNB stood at K1,160,720 in Ndola, K1,054,640 in Kitwe, K922,290 in Luanshya and K917,140 in Kabwe. Making comparisons across these urban areas, some marginal reductions were seen in mealie meal, vegetables and tomatoes in most places. However, a 25Kg bag of mealie meal increased on average by K200 in Luanshya and 1Kg of vegetables increased on average by K100 in Ndola. Also, marginal decreases were recorded on dry fish, eggs, milk and cooking oil in Lusaka, but these savings to customers were not regularly seen in the other BNB areas. In terms of increases, the price of charcoal continued to rise in all urban areas due to the rains, and rentals were also raised in some cases.