Zambia’s GDP to Grow by 4.2% in 2023

Secretary to the Treasury, Felix Nkulukusa, announced yesterday that Zambia’s economy is projected to expand by 4.2% in 2023.

This will be a slight dip compared to last year’s growth of 4.7%, which is to be expected following the months of wrangling over the country’s debt restructuring. However, the Secretary was optimistic about the news, as GDP forecasts 4.8% and 4.7% growth in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

This is very welcome news. Zambia was the first major country to default on its $18 billion foreign debt during the Covid pandemic in 2020. The following years has seen issues with its creditors, who had for some time struggled to make headway with debt restructuring plans.

Zambia’s external debt is split roughly three ways: one third is owed to Chinese lenders, another to private creditors, and the rest to other governments and multilateral lenders, such the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Nkulukusa said central government external debt had increased by 1% to $14.09 billion as of end of this March from $13.96 billion at the end of 2022, making Zambian public debt a total of $25.4 billion.

He said in his announcement, “the increase in debt stock was largely on account of disbursements received from multilateral creditors for budget support and project loans”.

Photo: @CUTS_Lusaka / Twitter