SECRETARY to the Treasury Fredson Yamba says the country is unable to meet its scheduled debt obligations following failure to reach an agreement with Eurobond holders on the proposed six months delayed interest payment.
In a statement, Tuesday, Yamba noted that Zambia would only be able to pay foreign exchange based debt to multilateral agencies and debt for a few priority projects that have an immediate economic and social impact.
“In view of the urgency of the current situation, the Government has determined to ask all its external creditors to agree to debt service suspension on the same terms. The only FX (foreign exchange) denominated debt that Zambia will continue to pay on a current basis is debt from multilateral agencies and debt for a few priority projects that have an immediate economic and social impact. More information about the perimeter of such priority projects will be provided separately. To be clear, such suspension will apply to all scheduled payments of principal and interest, including accumulated arrears, for a six-month period while it completes its DSA. Should Zambia fail to reach an agreement with its commercial creditors (including holders of its Eurobonds) on the terms of the appropriate standstills, as previously stated, the Republic with its limited fiscal space will be unable to make payments and, therefore, fail to forestall accumulating arrears,” he stated.
“Following the presentation by the Minister of Finance Dr Bwalya Ng’andu, MP, to Creditors on September 29th 2020, the Government of Zambia and its advisers (Lazard Freres and White and Case) have received a number of questions from creditors asking for further clarification on the Republic’s debt strategy, notably in respect of how it intends to approach the servicing of its external debt in the current environment.”
He added that if the standstill is accepted, interest accrued on the delayed payments will be considered during the restructuring process.
“Should the Noteholders consent to the standstill, we will recognise interest accruing on deferred coupons in the restructuring process, at a rate to be determined in good faith with Noteholders. The Government would like to take this opportunity to reiterate its strong desire and willingness to use this standstill to engage, with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors, in a collaborative and constructive dialogue with all its creditors to design a sustainable debt strategy in the weeks and months to come,” Yamba added.
“As explained in the Minister of Finance’s presentation to the creditors, Zambia is confronting considerable challenges and liquidity difficulties compounded by the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic that has led the government to request the cooperation of all its creditors. In this regard, the government is negotiating debt service suspension agreements under the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) with all its official creditors and has requested comparable treatment from commercial creditors. In that connection, the government has sought the consent of the holders of Zambia’s outstanding Eurobonds to a standstill on debt service for a period of six months until April 2021 while it finalises its Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) and seeks to put the country’s debt on a sustainable trajectory.”
He further noted that the six months suspension period would allow government to design a sustainable and equitable debt management strategy.
“The debt service suspension period that the Government is requesting will allow us to work, with the assistance of our financial and legal advisors, and in cooperation with the IMF, and all our creditors including the Noteholders and their Ad-hoc committee, to design a sustainable and equitable debt management strategy. Our common objective will be to normalise our relationship with our valued financial partners as soon as circumstances allow and to orderly address Zambia’s debt challenges. We remain committed to ensuring equitable treatment of all our creditors and ensuring transparency in our engagements,” stated Yamba.
One Response
By the end of 2019 it became quite obvious that this government would drive us into bankruptcy. National bankruptcy is always associated with massive currency depreciation. While the wealthy such of those in power took steps to preserve their wealth, the poor and middle-class will have to accept a massive decline in their standards of living.