The usefulness of the basket is that it gives over time a fairly accurate picture of the rising cost of living in Lusaka. Its accounts compare favourably with the surveys done by the Government’s Central Statistical Office. [See Basic Needs Basket overview ]
2004 Press Releases:
January | February | March | April | May | June | July| August | September | October | November | December
Current Basic Needs Basket - November
2005: - Monthly
cost of food alone at K506,150: Is the gain in the value of the Kwacha
helping the people?
"However,
the fact that the strengthening of the Kwacha has not had any perceivable
relationship to the reduction of key production ingredients such as fuel
means that this phenomenon is meaningful only for itself...”
This Year...
November
K1,345,550
October
K1,348,860
September
K1,353,790
August
K1,358,990
July
K1,361,770
June
K1,349,650
May
K1,352,130
April
K1,331,920
March
K1,331,950
February
K1,333,170
January
K1,340,840
BNB Expands to six major town..
BNB for 2004
December 2004;K1,147,840 - November 2004;K1,114,800 - October 2004;K1,127,500 - September 2004;K1,100,200 - August 2004; K1,100,200 - July 2004;K1,105,100 - June 2004;K1,118,700 - May 2004;K1,113,500 - April 2004;K1,110,150 - March 2004;K1,094,100 - February 2004;K1,078,750 - January 2004;K1,065,900
Our press releases analyze the trends and implications of a given months figures in the food basket.
The cost of living – indeed the cost of surviving – is for most residents of Lusaka quite out of reach when the Basic Needs Basket is used as the norm.
Moreover, the JCTR’s basket’s regular and wide dissemination (published in newspapers, NGO newsletters and periodic reports, cited in scholarly studies, and circulated in government offices, international organizations, embassies, trade unions and businesses) has assured that it receives attention and stirs discussion.
Some trade unions have brought the monthly food basket into their wage negotiations in arguing for increases to meet basic needs.
The BNB over the years 2002, 2003 & 2004 in
Figures
BNBs for previous years are HERE