Zambia's trade deficit in the third quarter was halved from the second quarter on account of an increase in merchandise export earnings coupled with a decline in imports bill.

The recent quarterly report from Bank of Zambia (BoZ) shows that the trade deficit narrowed to 36.2 million US dollars during the reviewed quarter from 82.0 million dollars in the previous quarter.

BoZ attributed the decrease of trade deficit to the strong merchandise export earnings which increased by 4.9 percent to 580. 8 million dollars in the third quarter.

On the other hand, merchandise imports decreased slightly to 617.0 million dollars in the period under review from 635.5 million dollars in the second quarter.

Copper export, which is the country's main forex earner, scooped 390.9 million dollars in the third quarter from 363.3 million dollars realized in the second quarter following a 8.2 percent rise in copper prices during the period in the international market. This accounted for 67 percent of the total export earnings in the third quarter.

However, cobalt export earnings declined by 22 percent to 32.7 million dollars in the period due to a decline in both the sales volume and realized cobalt prices. Zambia is the world's second largest cobalt producer after the Democratic Republic of the Congo with annual outturn at about 5,000 tons.

Non-traditional export earnings increased by 6 percent to 157.2 million in the reviewed period from 148.3 million in the second quarter, largely thanks to the increase in export earnings from cotton lint, cement and gemstone, according to the central bank.

Source: Xinhua