Loan repayments pushed up debt - Mwanakatwe

OVER $1billion in external debt has been accumulated because of payments made on previous loans for on-going economic infrastructure programmes, says Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe.

Ms Mwanakatwe said as at end of December 2018 external debt was $10.05 billion compared to $8.74 billion at the end of 2017.

ER billion in external debt has been accumulated because of payments made on previous loans for ongoing economic infrastructure programmes, says Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe.

Ms Mwanakatwe said as at end of December 2018 external debt was $10.05 billion compared to $8.74 billion at the end of 2017. The minister observed that public debt has of late attracted a lot of debate and reaffirmed that Government was committed to moving back the debt to moderate risk of distress to attain its debt obligations. This is contained in the economic performance as at end of December, 2018 issued by the minister this week.

And an economist, Maambo Hamaundu has advised Government to come up with various streams of revenue mobilisation to help ease the debt situation.

Mr Hamaundu applauded Ms Mwanakatwe for her transparency and timely updates on the debt situation.

‘‘The government should come up with various streams of revenue mobilisation however, this is not an easy task because for example you cannot spend K2 to collect K1,’’ he said.

Former Parliamentary committee chairperson, on estimates Highvie Hamududu said Government should use various viable options such as partial privatisation of parastatal firms, stick to austerity measures and refinancing on a longer term such as 30 years.

Mr Hamududu said parastatal firms should be part of the solution as they hold the greatest leverage for economic recovery through attraction of fresh foreign direct investment into the economy. The opposition leader who is former Bweengwa lawmaker said debt was not a bad thing but that what mattered was how it was utilized so that it spurs more benefits for citizens.

He said, for instance, infrastructure development could not be completely abandoned as it was important to the growth of the economy.