Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Chileshe Kandeta says minister Felix Mutati made a mistake when reading the state of the economy speech to parliament.
In an interview with News Diggers! Kandeta said it was not possible that Zambia could accumulate external dept exceeding US$10 billion within five months.
“It was a slip [of the tongue], it’s US$7.2 billion not US$17 billion. He was looking at the statement, but you know figures… there can always be a slip,” Kandeta explained.
“It’s not possible, 17 billion is not possible. Where could the US$10 billion have gone? That is not a small amount of money, so that has to be corrected” he wondered.
During the state of the economy address in the National Assembly yesterday, Mutati said Zambia’s external debt had swelled to US$17 billion by May 2017 from US$6.9 billion in December 2016.
“Mr Speaker, Zambia’s external debt stock as at the end of May 2017 increased to US $ 17.2 billion from US $ 6.9 billion in December 2016. The increase on stock was on account of new disbursements. The domestic debt stock was 38.6 billion in May 2017 compared to 33 billion in December 2016,” said Mutati.
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i think there is something terribly wrong here with statement made by Mr kandeta.Before minister of finance present the speech to the parliament people like him do have a draft and even cabinete minister they get copies. so the issue is when he spotted the mistakes why didint he call the minister for collections?Besides Mr chileshe miust follow the protocols ..that means if the minister erred….then he could have seen him or the deputy minister before going into the public as he is a very junior person at minister of finance ..I smell nothing but a rotten fish her.
bwana moderator if you dont publish my letter then you a sell out and corrupt to mother zambia planted there to swindle our views.
to further show that mr kandeta is a hired bull i challenge him to state his motives on confussing the nationm.I work at finance and we all know the minister study these figures all the times and he cant be faulted by saying our debt is 17 billion dollars.its not possible .mr kandeta who paid you to lie like this ?