Population — practice question

Zambia is classified as a middle-income country, yet 60% of its population of 15 million live below the poverty line. In 2017, the Zambian government said that it planned to shift the country’s capital from Lusaka in the south of the country to Ngabwe, a village in the centre of the country. Ngabwe at present has poor roads and other infrastructure. A move to Ngabwe, however, could help the country deal with its rapid rate of population growth and could encourage entrepreneurs to establish new businesses in that area. In 2017, the country had a zero net migration rate, a birth rate of 41.8, a death rate of 12.4, and a life expectancy of 52.5 years. Zambia’s economic growth rate averaged 6.8% between 2004 and 2014. This rate declined after 2014 partly because the kwacha, Zambia’s currency, depreciated. The drop in the foreign exchange rate of the kwacha helped push the country’s inflation rate up from 10.1% in 2015 to 20.6% in 2016. In 2017, the labour force of 7.2 million represented 48% of the country’s population. Workers are employed in a variety of industries including agriculture, banking, building, copper mining, and emerald mining. Fig. 1.1 shows the link between copper output and revenue from the sale of copper, with 2010 as the index base of 100. Fig. 1.1 Copper output and revenue from the sale of copper 2010-17 (index numbers). The vertical axis is labelled "index" and ranges from 60 to 140. The horizontal axis shows years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. A solid line is labelled "Copper output". A dashed line is labelled "Revenue from the sale of copper". In 2017, Zambia’s central bank cut commercial bank lending. This reduced investment and household borrowing. Government spending increased more slowly and some reductions were made to government spending on training.