LUSAKA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Zambia's ruling MMD party chose
the country's vice president, Rupiah Banda, on Friday as its
candidate to contest a presidential election due in November, a
party official said.
Here are some key facts about Zambia.
* THE COUNTRY:
AREA: 752,612 square km (290,600 sq mile), or slightly
smaller than Turkey. Landlocked Zambia has borders with eight
countries - Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Tanzania. Formerly
Northern Rhodesia, the country is named after the Zambezi river.
POPULATION: 12 million.
LANGUAGES: The official language is English. Zambia has
around 72 local languages and dialects, including Bemba, Kaonda,
Lozi, Nyanja and Tonga.
CAPITAL: Lusaka.
ETHNICITY: Some 98 percent of Zambians are descended from
Bantu migrants, divided into around 70 ethnic groups. There are
also small European and Asian minorities.
RELIGION: Zambia was declared by law a Christian nation in
1991, but traditional African religions are widely practised.
* THE ECONOMY:
-- Zambia said this week it hopes to cut its fiscal deficit
to below 2.0 percent of GDP in 2008 and will take measures to
fight a worrying current inflation rate of 13.2 percent.
-- An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will visit
Zambia this month for a periodical review of the economy to see
if the government is meeting economic targets.
-- Zambia is hoping for an annual inflation rate of 7.0
percent in December and also hopes its economy will accelerate
to gross domestic product growth of 7.0 percent this year, from
6.2 percent in 2007.
-- Zambia has vast copper reserves. Annual GDP growth has
averaged 5 percent over the past five years.
((For main story click [nL]))
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the
top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
(([email protected]; +44 20 7542 7968; Reuters
Messaging: [email protected]))
Keywords: ZAMBIA ELECTION/PROFILE