July 2026 was a month in which Zambia’s capital markets held their macroeconomic gains from the first half of the year while the political calendar moved into its final stretch. Annual inflation held steady at 6.5 percent for a second consecutive month, remaining at an eight- year low and comfortably within the Bank of Zambia’s 6–8 percent target band, with the Monetary Policy Committee’s next decision not due until late September. The Kwacha, however, gave back some of its earlier gains through the month, weakening from around ZMW 18.03 per US dollar at end-June to close July near ZMW 18.95, as election-related demand for hard currency and profit-taking after a strong first half outweighed continued support from elevated copper prices.

On the corporate front, the Lusaka Securities Exchange’s Stock Exchange News Service carried a heavier-than-usual slate of transactional announcements: Real Estate Investments Zambia Plc’s shareholders approved a USD 46.41 million acquisition of a controlling stake in
the owner of EastPark Mall alongside a rights offer and bonus share issue; Zaffico Plc finalised the terms of a renounceable rights offer seeking to raise approximately ZMW 1.01 billion; and ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc launched a formal “listing optimisation” process,
appointing London and Lusaka advisers, even as it continued settlement negotiations with Trafigura over the arbitration award disclosed in June. Meanwhile, the presidential and parliamentary campaign entered its final weeks, and international investors increasingly turned their attention to the policy questions that will shape the post-election agenda: a successor International Monetary Fund programme, the pace of copper sector expansion,
and a widening fiscal deficit linked to a record maize harvest and election-year spending.