State dismisses BAZ claims on Zambia’s debt
GOVERNMENT has rubbished claims by the Bankers’ Association of Zambia (BAZ) on the country’s debt accumulation and arrears owed to suppliers and contractors, saying the two are different and cannot be compared.
And the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) has dismissed a report by a South African-based media claiming that government will default on the debt it incurred for development purposes.
Ministry of Finance head of media and public relations Chileshe Kandeta said there was foreign and domestic debt which was to be treated different.
Mr Kandeta referred this reporter to the Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe’s last quarterly statement and reaffirmed that it was the same status quo until Ms Mwanakatwe presented a first quarterly brief for this year and the end of this month.
“I refer you back to the Minister of Finance’s last quarterly statement and affirm that it is the current status on Zambia’s debt position,” he said.
The minister told Parliament that Zambia’s debt stock as at the end of June, 2018, which was the last reporting quarter.
The stock of external debt was at US$9.37 billion which represents 34.7 percent of gross domestic project (GDP) and was below the internationally agreed threshold of 40 per cent.
She said the stock of domestic debt in form of Government securities was K51.86 billion which represents 19.2 per cent of GDP.
Ms Mwanakatwe said there was no threshold defined internationally on domestic debt. However, the threshold for the combination of domestic and external debt stood at 56 per cent of GDP. Against this threshold, Zambia’s combined ratio was 53.9per cent of GDP.
She said the stock of arrears stood at K13.9 billion or 5.1 per cent of GDP and the total of guarantees were US$1.2 billion