CHINA and India have signed agreements to restructure their holdings of Zambian debt, said the president of the southern African nation, reports London's Financial Times.
Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema said he planned to resume talks with private creditors to resolve a 'terrible debt mountain' of more than US$13 billion in external debt that Africa's second largest copper producer stopped paying in 2020.
zambia agreed in outline terms to modify $6.3 billion in debt owed to official lenders last year. But progress was stopped when China, the single biggest creditor, objected to a deal with private investors involving about $4 billion in US dollar bond claims-making Beijing's signing of a deal now more significant.
'The last two countries that had not signed [deals as] official creditors, China and India, have signed, and I'm very pleased to indicate that,' President Hichilema told traditional leaders at Zambia's annual Ncwala harvest ceremony in the country's east.
SeaNews Turkey
Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema said he planned to resume talks with private creditors to resolve a 'terrible debt mountain' of more than US$13 billion in external debt that Africa's second largest copper producer stopped paying in 2020.
zambia agreed in outline terms to modify $6.3 billion in debt owed to official lenders last year. But progress was stopped when China, the single biggest creditor, objected to a deal with private investors involving about $4 billion in US dollar bond claims-making Beijing's signing of a deal now more significant.
'The last two countries that had not signed [deals as] official creditors, China and India, have signed, and I'm very pleased to indicate that,' President Hichilema told traditional leaders at Zambia's annual Ncwala harvest ceremony in the country's east.
SeaNews Turkey
