Zambia is aiming to agree a new International Monetary \u200cFund programme by the end of the year as it seeks to boost investment and growth after emerging from a sovereign debt default, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The copper-rich Southern African country’s previous $1.7 billion\u00a0IMF programme\u00a0ended in January, \u200bwith the funding underpinning Zambia’s debt restructuring.<\/p>\n
“Our wish is that certainly before the end of the \u200byear, we should have agreed with the Fund,” Musokotwane told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
“We \u2060need to do more than just get out of the debt crisis. We need to attract investments \u200bnow so that growth takes place and jobs are created,” Musokotwane added.<\/p>\n
A new programme will centre on channelling \u200bcapital into mining, energy and agriculture to fund job creation for a population that has grown sevenfold since independence, he said.<\/p>\n
That also meant it was “too soon” for a new international bond issuance, with the government wanting to cement its IMF relationship \u200band rebuild investor confidence before seeking fresh market financing.<\/p>\n
Following a staff team\u00a0visit to Lusaka between April and May, \u200bthe IMF said discussions on a new programme had advanced and were expected to continue after a general election in \u200cAugust.<\/p>\n
TAILWINDS \u2060AND RISKS TO GROWTH<\/strong><\/p>\n On the economic outlook, Musokotwane pointed to risks to growth including potential fuel price rises linked to the U.S.-Israeli\u00a0war with Iran\u00a0and a possible drought next year that could strain hydropower generation.<\/p>\n However, surging global copper demand and a wave of new mining investment would support growth, he said.<\/p>\n In its September budget, \u200bthe government forecast 6.4% growth \u200bthis year, while the \u2060IMF has twice trimmed its 2026 outlook, pegging it now at 4.3%, citing weaker mining output, energy constraints, a normalisation of agriculture after an exceptional 2025 harvest \u200band fallout from the Middle East crisis.<\/p>\n Musokotwane said demand for metals including copper “is \u200bgoing to \u2060give us a big surge in terms of growth in the coming few years”.<\/p>\n He said priorities for the next administration following the\u00a0August 13 election, included reforms on tax.<\/p>\n “We have to push hard on more tax revenue collection, not \u2060by imposing \u200bnew taxes but by encouraging and pushing through higher efficiency,” \u200bhe said.<\/p>\n Musokotwane has been finance minister since 2021, overseeing the restructuring of roughly $13 billion in external debt after Zambia became the first African \u200bcountry to default during the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zambia is aiming to agree a new International Monetary \u200cFund programme by the end of the year as it seeks to boost investment and growth after emerging from a sovereign debt default, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said on Thursday. The copper-rich Southern African country’s previous $1.7 billion\u00a0IMF programme\u00a0ended in January, \u200bwith the funding underpinning Zambia’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2362,30],"tags":[5302,5303,394],"class_list":["post-21444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured","category-southern-africa","tag-international-monetary-fund-programme","tag-situmbeko-musokotwane","tag-zambia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21445,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21444\/revisions\/21445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}