Finance starts quarterly reports on Zambia’s debt

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 08:15:36 +0000

By MAILESI BANDA

GOVERNMENT will start publishing quarterly reports on the country’s debt status for the public, says Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary, Mukuli Chikuba.

Mr Chikuba said Government is concerned at the different debt figures being quoted by the public.

Mr Chikuba said to avoid the public being uninformed of the debt status, the ministry has decided to commence publication of quarterly debt bulletins that will be made available to the public.

Mr. Chikuba was reacting to allegations by the former minister of finance, Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane that the external debt status for the country was between US$17bn to US$20bn by the 31st of December 2017 contrary to the minister’s update that it stands at US$7.9bn.

“The ministry has however noted the different numbers being quoted by some members of the public caused by information gaps and has undertaken to increase information sharing.”

“Therefore in addition to the economic report, the ministry has decided to commence publication of quarterly debt bulletins that will be made available to the public,” Mr. Kachinda said.

He noted that the ministry will also commence engagement of stakeholders that may have specific enquiries on the debt stock.

Last Friday, the minister, Mr Felix Mutati said as of December 31, 2017, Government’s external debt stood at US$7.9bn from US$6.9bn recorded by the end of 2016.

Preliminary figures show that Zambia’s external debt as at end 2017 is US$7.9bn while domestic debt is K48.3bn (approximately US$4.8bn using the average exchange rate for 2017). This entails that the total debt is approximately US$12.9bn.

This stock of debt represents the full and complete list of loans that the republic has drawn. The full details of the end 2017 debt will be published in an economic report that is being finalised and will be ready at the end of the month.