Socialist Party President and People’s Pact President Fred M’membe observes that repeated official declarations of “falling inflation” are detached from the lived reality of ordinary Zambians.
In a statement, Monday, Dr M’membe emphasised that celebrating headline numbers while households drown under escalating costs is not only tone-deaf but insulting.
He pointed out that the Governor of the Bank of Zambia, Dr Denny Kalyalya, may comfort boardrooms with talk of inflation settling at six to eight per cent, yet such claims are meaningless in markets and workplaces.
President M’membe highlighted that inflation is not an abstract statistic but the daily struggle to afford mealie meal, transport, rent, electricity, school requirements, and health care.
He stressed that when electricity tariffs rise dramatically and fuel prices remain elevated, the claim that inflation is “falling” becomes a cruel joke.
The Socialist Party President underlined that one cannot proclaim declining inflation while justifying massive increases in electricity tariffs.
He explained that power is a foundational input across the economy, affecting manufacturing, mining, agriculture, transport, services, and households.
President M’membe warned that when electricity becomes unaffordable, production costs rise, jobs are threatened, and prices inevitably increase.
He argued that to expect commodity prices to fall in such an environment is either economic illiteracy or deliberate deception.
The Socialist Party President insisted that if inflation were genuinely easing, Zambians would feel it through stabilised prices and recovered purchasing power.
He remarked that instead, people are cutting meals, defaulting on rent, accumulating debt, and abandoning small enterprises crushed by overheads.
Dr M’membe stressed that Zambia does not need toothless inflation targets but policies that bite into the real cost of living.
