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China-Africa relations
ChinaDiplomacy

World Bank chief says China’s actions delay Zambia debt restructuring deal

  • ‘China is asking lots of questions in the creditors committees and that causes delays, that strings out the process,’ David Malpass says
  • IMF head Kristalina Georgieva expresses confidence Zambia and creditor committee, co-chaired by China and France, can sign restructuring deal by April 1

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Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema (left) speaks with Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director, during their meeting at the State House in Lusaka on Monday. Photo: AP
Bloomberg
China’s actions in talks among countries that lent money to Zambia are delaying a restructuring of the African nation’s debt, and Beijing needs to move on from unfeasible demands, the head of the World Bank said.
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“China is asking lots of questions in the creditors committees and that causes delays, that strings out the process,” David Malpass, the president of the Washington-based development lender, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

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“It’s important for them to be focused on getting to an actual debt restructuring where the burden can be lightened for Zambia,” he said, adding that progress may be possible in the next couple of months.

Malpass spoke after meeting last month with officials from China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, the nation’s two largest lenders to poor countries. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, also visited Zambia this week to try to expedite a deal.

Yellen urged Zambia’s creditors to work quickly to restructure the southern Africa nation’s debts, and accused China of obstructing a deal. The Chinese embassy in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, responded by urging the US to stop sabotaging unspecified sovereign nations’ efforts to solve their debt issues.

Zambia became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign defaulter in 2020, and since then has been struggling to revamp external debt that topped US$17 billion, more than a third of which is held by Chinese creditors.

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