“In recent times there has been debate on Zambia’s steadily growing external debt.
This comes in the wake of debt relief efforts of the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief (MDR) initiatives which saw a reduction of the country‘s debt stock from US$ 7 billion in 2001 to US$ 934 million in 2006. This freed up resources in terms of debt servicing and contributed to the growing fiscal space for Zambia to invest in key areas of the economy. It also contributed to optimism regarding economic development across the country and opened up more avenues to raise funds for development on international capital markets.”