ABSTRACT
In recent years few countries in the world have had a more catastrophic economic record than Zambia. The difficulties became apparent in 1975, when the price of copper on the international market fell by almost 50 per cent. Since, at that time, the value of copper exports represented about half of Zambia’s GDP, and over 90 per cent of exports in value terms, the price fall had an immediate and massive effect upon Zambia’s current income. The copper price did not recover, and that, combined with a protracted decline in copper output, resulted in a fall by one-third in per capita GDP by the early 1980s. The economic difficulties continued for the remainder of the decade.
