IMF: Zambia to seek $8.4 bln 'cash debt relief' for 2022-25

Zambia is seeking $8.4 billion of "cash debt relief" from 2022 to 2025, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday in a long-awaited report on the first African nation to default on its debt in the pandemic era, in 2020.

Zambia needs to bring down its debt service-to-revenue ratio to 14%, make its electricity tariffs cost-reflective and also address the amount of bad loans in the banking system, the IMF said.

The Fund said in a report that will form the basis of negotiations to restructure Zambia's debts that there were "sufficient assurances' in the government's plan to bring its debt back to a sustainable level again. Zambia