ZAMBIA · ECONOMY

The Zambia election on 13 August 2026 is, in practice, a referendum on the country’s debt recovery. The macroeconomic numbers have improved sharply since the 2020 default, and the central campaign question is why so few households can feel it.

Lusaka, where the cost of living has become the central argument of the campaign. (Photo: Icem4k, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

What the Zambia election is really about

Zambia defaulted in 2020 and then chose a long, disciplined route out: restructuring, fiscal transparency and sustained engagement with international creditors. That process has largely worked on its own terms.

Inflation slowed to 6.5% in June 2026, the lowest reading in more than eight years. Reserves have been rebuilt, and the country has re-established a working relationship with the institutions that matter.

Polls and investors widely expect President Hakainde Hichilema to defeat an opposition that has struggled to unite. His challenger, Brian Mundubile, leads a fragmented field.

The argument is therefore not about the direction of policy. It is about who has felt the benefit of it.

The gap between the data and the kitchen table

Zambia’s recovery reads well in aggregate. Households report something different, and many say they are still squeezed by the cost of living.

That gap is the whole campaign. Mundubile has put it in the bluntest available terms, asking how the government can boast of building foreign reserves “when your people are going hungry”.

It is a familiar tension in post-restructuring economies. Stabilisation shows up first in reserve levels and inflation prints, and only later, if at all, in wages and prices at the market.

For a government seeking re-election, that lag is politically expensive. The improvements are real, but they are not yet the kind voters can spend.

Copper is holding the recovery up, and it is barely growing

Zambia’s rebound has leaned heavily on copper, and specifically on high copper prices. That makes the production numbers the most important economic data in the country.

Output reached 447,181.93 tonnes in the first half of 2026, according to Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development Permanent Secretary Dr Hapenga Kabeta. The comparable figure a year earlier was 445,176.59 tonnes.

That is a rise of 0.45%. Aggregated across large-scale and small-scale mines, it is close enough to flat that the distinction matters little.

The ministry credits Kansanshi, Lumwana, Lubambe, First Quantum Minerals and Konkola Copper Mines with most of the increase. Against a stated national ambition of one million tonnes, the current run rate leaves a wide gap.

The implication is uncomfortable but clear. If the recovery has been carried by price rather than volume, it is exposed to a market Zambia does not control.

The numbers to watch after 13 August

Whoever wins inherits the same arithmetic. Copper carries the economy, and copper volumes are essentially flat.

The stated national ambition is one million tonnes a year. A first half of 447,181.93 tonnes annualises well short of that, which means the target depends on new capacity rather than on better performance from existing mines.

The second number is the remainder of the creditor process. Restructuring roughly US$13 billion of default-era debt was the achievement of the last term, and the parts still outstanding will define the room the next government has to spend.

The third is whether disinflation holds. Reaching 6.5% in June was the lowest reading in more than eight years, but a single print is not a trend, and food and fuel costs can undo it quickly.

None of these depend much on who wins. They depend on copper prices, creditor patience and weather — which is precisely why the campaign has been fought over the cost of living instead.

What the vote means beyond Zambia

Zambia was the first African sovereign to default in the pandemic era, which made its restructuring a test case watched closely by creditors and by other borrowers. How that story ends politically matters well beyond Lusaka.

If a government that delivered textbook stabilisation struggles at the ballot box, the lesson other African finance ministers draw will not be an encouraging one. Orthodox adjustment is difficult to sell when its benefits arrive slowly.

For investors, the immediate questions are narrower: policy continuity, the pace of remaining creditor negotiations, and whether copper volumes finally start to move.

The answer to the first arrives on 13 August. The answer to the third will take considerably longer.

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