Macron welcomes agreement on Zambia’s debt restructuring

June 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, celebrated this Friday the agreement reached by the Zambian creditors’ committee for the restructuring of the country’s debt.

“New decision at the Paris Summit: Zambia’s official creditors committee has reached a debt restructuring agreement. This is a historic achievement. We remain mobilized to ensure that other countries caught in the debt trap benefit from a multilateral response,” Macron posted on his Twitter account.

The President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, has announced the agreement on social networks, in which he has assured that it is an “important milestone” to achieve economic recovery and stimulate its growth.

“But the hard work is not over yet. We must now move forward to find a solution with our private creditors, so we can focus on revitalizing our economy and building a better future for all Zambians… Resolving our debt overhang will help attract investment that will create jobs and improve livelihoods,” added the Zambian president.

CONVERSATIONS WITH GUTERRES ABOUT RESTRUCTURING

Last March, Hichilema asked the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to help promote the agreement – announced this Thursday – which at that time was not advancing “fast enough”.

Zambia was in talks to outline a postponement of 12.8 billion dollars (more than 11.6 billion euros) in external loans under the common framework of the G-20, after the southern African nation officially entered a state of ‘ default’ in November 2020, as published by the Bloomberg agency.

Guterres has already denounced the “extortion” of which the African continent is being a victim at the hands of a global financial system, in need of a “radical transformation”, which prevents African countries from developing their “vital systems”.

It should be remembered that, last year and according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), public debt indices in sub-Saharan Africa reached their highest point in more than two decades.