LUSAKA- Zambia owed $5.75 billion to Chinese creditors at the end of June, Vice President Mutale Nalumango said on Thursday, reading out a statement from the finance minister in parliament.
Giving a breakdown of the Chinese debt, Nalumango said $4.27 billion was owed by the central government, $1.34 billion by state-owned enterprises via facilities guaranteed by the government and $0.14 billion via facilities not guaranteed by the government.
The $5.75 billion total represents almost 40% of Zambia's total publicly guaranteed and non-guaranteed external debt, which the vice president put at $14.67 billion.
Last November, Zambia - Africa's second-largest copper producer - became the first country on the continent to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is now in talks with the International Monetary Fund and hopes to secure a lending programme to anchor a debt restructuring.
Nalumango said the restructuring would be done transparently, without favouritism. As well as Chinese entities, Zambia's external creditors include Eurobond holders, who are owed $3 billion, as well as multilateral lending agencies.
The vice president said the debt stock would be periodically audited and that one such audit under way now.
Asked whether the previous government had understated the country's debt, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said in parliament that loans amounting to $4.4 billion had been signed but not yet disbursed.
He said President Hakainde Hichilema's administration, which took office in August, wanted those loans to be cancelled or reduced, without specifying with whom they were contracted.
(Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Alex Richardson and Steve Orlofsky) ((alexander.winning@tr.com; +27 10 346 1076))
