Browsing: Zambia’s Economy

The creditor committee for Zambia stated that the conditions of the reorganisation would be finalised in a memorandum of understanding, but they did not provide any other specifics.

Additionally, it requested that private creditors “commit without delay” to the process of negotiating debt relief on conditions at least as favourable as those proposed by the government.

Kevin Daly, who is in charge of a group of Zambian Eurobond holders, praised the bilateral creditors’ statement but reiterated the need for access to the Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) of the IMF, which serves as the negotiation’s starting point.

The World Bank’s president, David Malpass, reiterated such sentiments, saying, “I implore official bilateral and private sector creditors to participate on equal terms, granting Zambia a considerable net-present-value debt reduction.”…

In the year 2020, Zambia became the first nation in the Covid-19 era to default on its obligations. At the end of the year 2021, its total external debt was US$17.27 billion, of which China held US$5.78 billion. Currently, it is engaged in discussions with its creditors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to find a way to climb out of its current financial predicament and reduce its reliance on debt.

There are several other countries besides Zambia that owe a significant amount of money to China. It is believed that African countries’ debts with the country make up a third of the total obligations owed to private lenders who are not Chinese. Over a third of the debt repayments for the year, 2021 were transferred to Chinese lenders by Angola, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Zambia, respectively.

Deborah Brautigam, a researcher with the China Africa Research …

Zambia’s economy is expected to grow by 3 per cent, according to nation’s President Edgar Lungu who said on Thursday that, the nation’s economic growth will be slightly off the previous forecast of 3.2 per cent.

According to Reuters, President Lungu revealed the growth projection when he was meeting diplomats, and commented on the fiscal deficit which was expected to shrink from 6.5 per cent in 2019 to 5.5 per cent in 2020, while inflation would remain within the range of 6 to 8 per cent.

However, in October 2019, Bloomberg reported that Zambia’s inflation rate remained at a three year high in October and economic growth slowed, complicating the central bank’s task.

Further, annual consumer inflation accelerated to 10.7 per cent from 10.5 per cent in September 2019, whereby Zambia Statistics Agency noted to be the fastest rate of price growth since October 2016.

The economy of Africa’s second-biggest …