ECONOMIST Bright Chizonde has warned that government’s plan to borrow an additional K18 billion from the domestic market risks pushing up interest rates and limiting access to loans for private businesses. Recently, Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane announced that government planned to borrow an additional K18 billion from the domestic market to finance the K19.9 billion supplementary budget. In an interview, Tuesday, Chizonde explained that when government competes with businesses for loans from the same financial institutions, it can push up borrowing costs and discourage private sector investment. He warned that this could work against the efforts by the Bank of Zambia to bring down interest rates and make borrowing more affordable. “If government is borrowing domestically,...