The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that \u200btechnical discussions with Zambian authorities over a new \u200csupport programme could start in April but that agreement on a new deal was only expected after August’s elections.<\/p>\n
Zambia’s most recent \u200bIMF programme ended in January, with total disbursements \u200bof $1.7 billion supporting the Southern African country as \u2060it emerges from a protracted debt-restructuring process.<\/p>\n
“Zambia has made \u200bsubstantial progress in restoring macroeconomic stability under the recently \u200bcompleted IMF-supported programme,” the IMF said in a statement at the end of a staff mission.<\/p>\n
“The authorities expressed interest in a \u200bsuccessor arrangement with the IMF. Initial technical discussions could \u200bbegin as early as late April, with more engagement expected after \u200cthe \u2060general elections once a new government is in place.”<\/p>\n
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema will seek re-election for a second term in August.<\/p>\n
The IMF said the economic outlook for \u200bZambia remained \u200bpositive, though it \u2060said it had revised down its growth projections for 2025 and 2026 to \u200b4.5% and 5.5%, respectively.<\/p>\n
“The mission also discussed \u200bemerging fiscal \u2060pressures. While the 2026 budget framework targets a strong primary surplus, early signs of slippage have begun to \u2060emerge, \u200breflecting spending pressures related to the \u200bwage bill, government support to the agricultural sector, and election\u2011related expenditures,” \u200bthe Fund’s statement continued.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22933,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-27855","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema will seek re-election for a second term in August.","published_date":"","news_description":"Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema will seek re-election for a second term in August.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27855","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27860,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27855\/revisions\/27860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}