Zambia seals $6.3 billion debt restructuring deal – Reuters

PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) – Zambia has clinched a deal to restructure more than $6 billion in debts owed to other governments, a French official said on Thursday, in a long-awaited breakthrough to ease pressure on the southern African country’s strained public finances.

Zambia in 2020 became the first African country to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID-19 pandemic and has struggled since in protracted negotiations to agree a deal on the $12.8 billion of external debt it was trying to restructure.

“We have reached an agreement on the outline of a debt treatment, we’ve reached the end of the negotiation,” the French official, who did not wish to be identified, told journalists.

Zambia’s public sector creditors agreed to resche…

Read the full article at: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/zambia-seals-63-billion-debt-restructuring-deal-2023-06-22/