Friday, March 29, 2024

Zambia sees IMF board meeting at end-August to approve loan programme

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Zambia’s Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said on Friday that the International Monetary Fund’s executive board was expected to meet at the end of the month to approve a lending plan.

The southern African country reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on a $1.4 billion three-year extended credit facility in December, conditional upon its ability to reduce debt to levels the fund deems sustainable.

Late last month, Zambia’s official creditors pledged to negotiate a debt restructuring, a move IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva welcomed as enabling the fund’s board to consider signing off on the financing.

Addressing the same event as Musokotwane, the permanent secretary in the finance ministry said the economy grew 2.4% in the first quarter of 2022 and that the economic environment was expected to improve because of the advanced engagements with the IMF and creditors.

Mukuli Chikuba said government revenue and grant collections were 5.5% ahead of the half-year budget target, while expenditures were 14.7% below target.

The central government’s external debt rose slightly to $13.25 billion at the end of June from $13.04 billion at the end of December, Chikuba said.

He added that the government planned to remove inefficient subsidies such as on fuel over 2023-25.

8 COMMENTS

  1. We were criticised for borrowing yet they are doing the same. Atleast for us we channelled the money into infrastructure development, which the same upnd are reaping the benefits

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  2. IMF is in a predicament lending to a political party, Because GRZ has no record of protecting peoples investments especially of grade sevens thinks it’s OK to erode the foundation of minority investments.

    Saturday morning I got a call from a young man. Hey, what are you doing? I answered wat je wilt, he asked can you go with me to pick up
    David Bradley Garden tractor. How many presidents have come and gone David Bradley tractor investments still generating an income. IMF originated In a place where people investments Matter’s

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  3. PF as represented here by the sa called Kaizar Zulu are bad losers. For how long will you keep dwelling on the past? Move on and plan for the future. If Zambians will come to conclude that you were better than UPND they will give you another chance in 2026, but the way thing are looking, you may have to wait for a very very very long time.

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    • It is a pipe dream if PF will even be on the ballot in 2026, should they be, they will end up with 10 MP’s in parliament.
      Zambian’s will soon start seeing the results of what the government is doing…
      Its always dark before dawn….. Zambia is now on the right track for good things to come.

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  4. Don’t take pride in borrowing. Stop giving Mining companies tax heavens or holidays on the expense of Poor Zambians. We can do better as Nation.

  5. We have given a wrong picture to IMF. We have cooked figures to impress them. The bank of Zambia has manipulated the exchange rate and rate of inflation. The statistics office (What ever it is called now) has is lying about GDP. 42, 000 civil servants have been engaged and we hear now another 5, 000 will be employed in the army. The truth of the matter is that the govt has no capacity to pay the now bloated civil service. Soon we will be faced by industrial unrest when unions start demanding for genuine pay for its members to meet the rising cost of living. By then the IMF would have said asked the govt for wage freeze as part of the loan conditions. The new 42, 000 will be accumulating salary arrears as the govt will not have capacity to pay the huge salary bill. The real…

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