State rubbishes Bloomberg report on Zambia’s debt

GOVERNMENT has no reason to give false financial information about the debt owed to the international community, Minister of information and Broadcasting Service Dora Siliya has said.

Speaking at a pressing briefing in Lusaka yesterday, Ms Siliya rubbished reports by the Bloomberg that government was not truthful on the debt to the international community.

Ms Siliya said that government had no reason to give false information about its debt as the international community and the Zambians themselves were checking.

“When government owes there is someone out there who knows that the government of the republic of Zambia the people of Zambia are owing, and it is the Central Bank that has to pay back the money on behalf of the people of Zambia,” she said.

She said the Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe was very categorical when she stated the debt for Zambia was US$8.7 billion as of December 2017.

She said when Government gives its position on the debt as the Minister of Finance did in the company of Bank of Zambia deputy governor Dr Tukiya Mabula, then that’s the true position as everything was in the public domain.

“It is not possible as Government to give people of Zambia false information on the current debt when the people we represent already know the facts,” she said.

A Bloomberg report stated that the Zambian Government was sticking to its foreign-debt figures even though analysts had raised concerns that the nation’s obligations might have been higher than stated by the minister.

Meanwhile, Ms Siliya has announced that the Ministry of Finance will next week release K200 million to settle part of the debt owed to the small and medium road contractors.