This marks a major breakthrough in the country\u2019s years-long effort to restore debt sustainability and rebuild investor confidence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The deal comes after Zambia became Africa\u2019s first sovereign defaulter in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it halted payments on its external debt in 2020. Since then, the country has faced a lengthy and complex restructuring process involving both official and private creditors.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Economist Trevor Hambayi says the latest agreements represent a turning point, as they create the fiscal space needed for Zambia to reduce its debt burden and attract new investment. \u201cIt creates room for Zambia to stabilise its economy and position itself for growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hambayi noted that the experience offers key lessons for other African countries facing similar debt challenges. \u201cFirst, we need to be able to manage our debt situation better. This challenge, where countries fall back into debt and then ask for forgiveness, is an issue of poor fiscal management, and this must be addressed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added that the length of Zambia\u2019s restructuring process, which has taken more than four years to complete, underscores the complexity of coordinating among diverse creditors and the need for faster, more transparent frameworks for future debt workouts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13051,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-13050","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zambia has reached key bilateral debt-restructuring agreements with several of its Chinese creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of China. ||Zambia has reached key bilateral debt-restructuring agreements with several of its Chinese creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of China. ","published_date":null,"news_description":"Zambia has reached key bilateral debt-restructuring agreements with several of its Chinese creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of China. ||Zambia has reached key bilateral debt-restructuring agreements with several of its Chinese creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of China. ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18354,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13050\/revisions\/18354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}