Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary Mukuli Chikuba has said Zambia has not defaulted on its foreign debt.
His explanation follows the government’s request to creditors to defer dollar-bond interest payments until April 2021.
The country had today launched a vote with its Eurobond holders on where a proposal was made to defer interest payments on its three outstanding dollar-denominated bonds until April 14, 2021.
“The proposal is intended as a first step to provide the issuer and its advisers the necessary breathing time to finalise the debt sustainability analysis and to define the parameters of a debt restructuring strategy aimed at putting the debt on a sustainable trajectory, which is a pre-condition to IMF lending,” Secretary to the Treasury Mr Fredson Yamba stated.
And Mr Chikuba has clarified that Zambia has been in contact with all its commercial creditors to try and agree on how to address the debt as an ongoing process, and not that government has defaulted on payments.
“We are just trying to be transparent. It is not a default. In fact, two days ago, we had interest payments due on the $750 million eurobond and we paid,” Mr Chikuba has said.