The Zambian government on Wednesday said the economy will grow 6 percent in 2025.
While acknowledging that the economy has been hit negatively by the drought this year, Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane expressed optimism of an economic rebound next year and beyond.
He said the economy has been increasingly steadily since 2022, recording a 4 percent growth last year and that had it not been for the drought, the economy would have grown 5 percent this year.
“In the medium term, we are all confident that this economy will be at a level we have never seen before in this country because of the conducive environment that has been created,” he said during a mid-term budget review meeting with various stakeholders.
The minister attributed the positive growth to an expected rebound in the agriculture sector as well as the booming mining industry.
He said the economy suffered in recent years partly due to a slump in the mining industry which was the country’s economic mainstay.
Meanwhile, Musokotwane said the government will soon be announcing a number of incentives meant to encourage more investment in the energy sector.
He said the country was currently facing an electricity crisis because of the failure to invest in alternative sources of energy and that the government wanted to change the situation by encouraging more private sector investment in the sector.
