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No timeline on debt restructuring—Zambia’s finance minister

Published

10 months ago

February 6, 2024

In response to calls for compromise from the International Monetary Fund’s Africa head, Zambia’s finance minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, stated on Monday that he was unable to provide a timeframe for a debt restructuring agreement with private creditors.

On the fringes of a mining conference in Cape Town, Musokotwane was asked by reporters when Zambia may come to a new agreement to restructure the bonds. “It is just a process. I cannot give you a timeline. I am hopeful,” Musokotwane said.

“We’ve done everything on our side to get to debt restructuring. … This is why we are saying that they (creditors) ought to recognise the pain and difficulties that arise as long as this debt is not restructured,” he added.

Due to delays in its lengthy restructuring attempts, Zambia became the first African nation to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID epidemic in late 2020.

It experienced a significant setback in November when its official creditors, including China, rejected a new agreement to rework $3 billion of Eurobonds.

Felix Nkulukusa, Zambia’s Treasury Secretary, stated in January that the country’s largest copper producer aimed to reach a new restructuring agreement by the end of 2024’s first quarter.

According to Nkulukusa’s statement from last week, Zambian officials travelled to China two weeks ago to talk about debt restructuring with officials from the Export-Import Bank of China and a few Chinese commercial banks.

The most recent IMF data indicates that by the end of 2022, Zambia owed Chinese creditors approximately $5.9 billion.

Related Topics:Debt restructuring Featured Zambia

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Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery exports first fuel to Cameroon

Published

1 day ago

December 12, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The Dangote Refinery in Nigeria said on Wednesday that it had exported its first petrol to Cameroon, marking a significant milestone that may help stabilise gasoline costs throughout the region and open the door for regional energy integration.

When fully operational, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote’s 650,000-barrel refinery in Lagos is intended to alter the trade of refined products in the Atlantic basin and compete with refineries in Europe.

According to a statement by Neptune Oil, an energy company based in Cameroon, both businesses were looking into new projects to create a dependable supply chain that would assist in stabilising fuel costs and opportunities throughout the area.

According to Neptune Oil, there were no middlemen involved in the petrol delivery deal.

It is anticipated that the refinery’s operations will spur growth in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors, increasing investments in cement manufacture, plastic and rubber production, chemical and pharmaceutical goods, and oil refining.

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Egypt’s November inflation drops to 25.5%, near 2-year low

Published

3 days ago

December 11, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to figures released Tuesday by statistics agency CAPMAS, Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation rate fell more than anticipated to 25.5% in November, the lowest level since December 2022.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused international investors to pull billions of dollars out of Egyptian treasury markets, inflation started to rise sharply in early 2022.

In September 2023, headline inflation reached a record high of 38.0%. It dropped to 26.5% by October 2024.

In a Reuters survey last month, 15 economists’ consensus prediction was for annual inflation to gradually decline to 26.4%.

According to CAPMAS statistics, headline inflation decreased from 1.1% in October to 0.5% in November every month.

Compared to October, when they fell 1.1%, food costs fell 2.8% over the month, making them 23.3% more than they were a year ago.

An increase in the money supply has been a major contributor to inflation. According to central bank data, Egypt’s M2 money supply increased by 29.54% in October compared to the same month last year.