ORDINARY Zambians can no longer cope with the escalating cost of living, which is being made worse by skyrocketing inflation, says Consumer Unity Trust Society (CUTS) programmes manager Ishmael Zulu. In an interview, Zulu cautioned that the food security situation in the country would deteriorate to an extent where citizens’ lives would be lost due to hunger if remedial measures were not swiftly implemented to arrest the rise in the cost of living. “The continued rise in inflation is something that continues to draw a lot of concern. When we look back at 2020, it’s just two months when we got a reduction in inflation and the rest of the months of the year, the inflation would rise. And you can attribute this to the kwacha as well. Last year, the kwacha was the worst performing currency, and because of that, our weakened kwacha and Zambia being an import-dependent country, we saw a sharp rise in the prices of goods and services and this is where our concern stems from. With another rise in the inflation rate, the general prices of goods and services have seen a sharp increase. Not too long ago, we saw cement companies hike the price of cement. This would have an adverse impact on the economy. When you look at the reason behind the cement companies hiking prices, and you can draw a conclusion between the cost of producing cement because they purchase the materials abroad in US dollars. Again, with the depreciating kwacha, prices have increased,” Zulu said.