Zambian economy grows by 3.1 pct in Jan.-Sept.

LUSAKA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian economy grew by 3.1 percent during the first three quarters of 2017, preliminary figures released by the country's statistics agency on Thursday have shown.

The Central Statistical Office (CSO) attributed the growth to the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries which accounted for 1.1 percentage points to the growth while the education industry accounted for 0.6 percentage points to the growth.

Other industries that contributed to the growth included the construction industry which accounted for 0.4 percentage points, the manufacturing and electricity generation industries which accounted for 0.3 percentage points while the information and communication industry had a negative contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first three quarters.

However, the year-on-year rates of the first three quarters of 2017 were lower than those of the first three quarters of 2016, the statistics agency added.

The figures further revealed that the economy grew by 3.3 percent in the third quarter of the year. Enditem