The Zambian economy, as is the case with many economies, is facing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 global
health pandemic. Coupled with an already deteriorating macro-economic outlook at the onset of the pandemic,
the economy slid into a recession in 2020 as economic growth shrunk by 3.0 percent (ZSA, 2021). Nonetheless,
the economy is now set for a recovery, as evidenced by the less severe contraction in economic growth of -2.7 percent
in the fourth quarter of 2020 relative to the -3.1 percent estimated for the third quarter. In this brief, we highlight
Zambia’s economic performance in the first quarter of 2021 and present our expectations for the second quarter of 2021.