While the Kitwe City government led by Debern ambitiously sought to perform a radical major operation on the city's economy, conditions across East Africa were far from favorable.
As time passed, the European flu had thoroughly evolved into a nationwide public health problem in East Africa. To address it, corresponding measures were adopted across the country: workers were given leave, factories shut down, business establishments closed their doors, and the entire market lay desolate.
The East African economy had entered its first winter in history, and the people of the nation felt, for the first time, the pressure brought by an economic crisis.
By June, East Africa's industrial production activities had been severely affected. Taking steel enterprises as an example, sixty percent of the nation's steel companies had been affected by the epidemic and economic crisis, forcing them to cut production or even temporarily cease operations.
The East African Minister of Industry reported pessimistically to Ernst, "This year's national steel output may be cut in half as a result. In some steel enterprises, infections have erupted in concentrated clusters due to the epidemic, and they have had no choice but to give workers leave to prevent the spread of the disease."
"At the same time, the market downturn has led to insufficient orders, forcing some factories that have not even been affected by the epidemic to reduce production as well."
"Judging by the current trend, our country's steel output this year may fall to just over thirty million tons. If the epidemic and market conditions continue to worsen, it may even drop below thirty million tons."
In fact, beginning in 1918, influenced by the course of the European War, East Africa's steel output had already begun to decline. At that time, European demand for East African steel and related products