IMF reaffirms dedication to Zambia

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva spoke on Tuesday (Jan. 24) at a townhall assembly the place she took questions from individuals gathered on the College of Zambia about her organisation’s work with the nation.

In 2021, Zambia agreed a $1.3 billion bailout mortgage from the IMF, whose circumstances have been criticized by some as too drastic.

However Georgieva pushed again, saying the Washington-based lender was considering seeing Zambia overcome its debt challenges in addition to attaining development.

“One factor I don’t get up to fret about is that the IMF is a villain going to international locations to remove their sovereignty as a result of that is your IMF and we belong to you”, mentioned Kristalina Georgieva , IMF’s managing director.

Georgieva mentioned on Tuesday she was “assured” an settlement to restructure Zambia’s debt was inside attain after partaking with the nation’s collectors.

Regardless of agreeing a $1.3bn bailout mortgage from the Worldwide Financial Fund in 2021, talks with Lusaka’s lenders have dragged.

The IMF circumstances had been criticized by some as unhealthy for the nation. 

Zambia owes a big quantity of its $17 billion exterior debt to personal lenders together with bondholders, but in addition to China.

In 2020, Zambia turned the primary African nation to default on its overseas debt because the begin of the Covid-19 pandemic after principally western lenders refused to freeze curiosity funds.