NATIONAL DEBT SITUATION
Vice President, Mutale Nalumango says Zambia is actively engaging the International Monetary Fund -IMF- for a debt relief programme.
The Vice President says government is hopeful that an agreement will be reached by the end of this year, for a funded programme of debt sustainability.
Ms Nalumango has said this today in Parliament in a statement on Zambia’s external debt situation.
She has explained that it is important to appreciate that unsustained external debt levels are chocking government expenditure on other critial areas, such as social services.
Ms Nalumango has added that by the end of the second quarter of this year, Zambia had a combined about 2-billion US dollars arrears in debt servincing, both on the interest and principal amounts borrowed.
She has further stated that these arrears have kept on accumulating, meaning the external debt has kept on growing and continues to be unsustainable.
The Vice has however said government is hopeful that the debt will become sustainable, following the engagements with the international community.