AllAfrica's Charlayne Hunter-Gault meets up with IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Johannesburg. (Photo Courtesy IMF/Stephen Jaffe)

IT is not often that the fastidious International Monetary Fund (IMF) sings praises of African economies.

But the admission yesterday by visiting IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on how Zambia prudently managed its economy during the recession is a song worth listening to, especially for those that want to learn what the country did right to keep the economy on track, despite the storms.

While economies around the world were last year reeling from the harsh effects of the global economic recession, Zambia's economy for some reason remained resilient and grew by a record six per cent.

Economic indicators such as inflation, improved significantly to single digit levels while the previously see-sawing exchange rates remained stable, making business planning easy.

Mr Strauss-Kahn included Zambia on his travel itinerary because, according to him, the country gave a positive picture of how Africa was faring economically.

President Rupiah Banda, in appreciating the visit, pointed out that there were a number of factors the Government put in place to ensure the country's economy remained on track.

Those who may care to remember know the instability inflicted on the economy when the major mines decided to pull out of the country citing falling copper prices. Any instability in the mining industry is bound to destabilise the entire economic fabric of the country because the sector contributes 70 per cent of the total foreign exchange earnings and employs more than 60,000 people.

It was at the height of this instability that the Government showed leadership and the head of State himself was involved in fore-stalling any further closures of mines and quickly found an investor to buy off the Luanshya copper mine where hundreds of jobs were at risk.

Good governance has also been maintained, especially in the corruption fight, the reason why even Transparency International last year rated Zambia ahead of many other countries in the fight against graft.

It is such show of confidence by institutions like the IMF, which will attract even more foreign direct investments and help shore up development activities to the entire corners of the country for the benefit of all Zambians.