ZAMBIA’s external debt has ballooned to a staggering US$13.96 billion while government has managed to collect about K26.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023 as total revenues and grants, Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has disclosed.
He said the central government external debt had jumped to US$13.96 billion from US$13.36 billion in 2022 and attributed the swell in the country’s external debt to disbursements from multilateral creditors.
Dr Musokotwane was speaking at the 2023 first quarter budget performance in Lusaka yesterday.
“During our January engagement, I presented the debt position as at endseptember 2022, with the central government external debt estimated at US$13.36 billion. In the interest of transparency, the Ministry of Finance and National Planning continues to publish this information in our quarterly debt bulletins, which can be accessed on the ministerial website,” Dr Musokotwane said.
On the domestic debt front, Dr Musokotwane said Zambia’s stock of Government Securities increased slightly to K211.7 billion as at end-March 2023 from K210 billion at end 2022.
He said when measured in dollar terms, the domestic debt rose to US$9.9 billion on account of the Kwacha depreciation.
And Dr Musokotwane has announced that government has so far collected K26.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023 as total revenues and grants, representing a 2.6 percent above the targeted revenue collection for the quarter.
“This was largely due to favourable performance in VAT and exceptional revenue collected from Zambia Information Communication and Technology Authority (ZICTA) from the sale of bandwidth spectrum,” Dr Musokotwane said.
He pointed out that non-tax revenue collections amounted to K4.2 billion against a target of K3.83 billion. The collections from ZICTA largely accounted for this outturn. In terms of spending, Dr Musokotwane said, Government released K38.5 billion to implement various projects and programmes, against a target of K37.8 billion.
