By Daily Revelation Reporter
Economist Yusuf Dodia has predicted an increase in fuel pump prices in January 2024.
For the past two months the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has maintained the fuel pump price despite the depreciation of the kwacha.
The ERB indicated that despite the downward movement in international oil prices, Zambians will not benefit owing to the depreciation of the Kwacha against the United States Dollar.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Dodia said since kwacha was weakening, it was expected that the prices of fuel would go up but this was not the case.
He said he suspects that the ERB has decided to follow President Hakainde Hichilema’s advice to review fuel pump prices quarterly.
“I suspect that the President did make a comment some two months ago asking the Energy Regulation Board to consider doing quarterly price reviews and so we have seen for the last three months the price of fuel has remained the same. So it could be that ERB has decided to follow the president’s advice and therefore, we should see the increase in fuel prices take place in January,” Dodia said.
He however said, “Having said that, a lot of it depends on what is happening in the international community and also how Zambia is dealing with the debt crisis.”
Dodia said the country has a huge debt crisis that needs to be looked into.
“We have a huge debt crisis that we need to look into, and so if we deal with the debt crisis in a positive way, that should be able to make life easier for us in 2024 but clearly, we still have problems. The international community has not agreed to our debt rescheduling and suggestions so that is going to remain some difficult process to be handled. I think we wait and see what is going to come out of this discussion on debt,” said Dodia.
