LUSAKA (Reuters) -Zambia hopes to get an additional $145 million by extending its International Monetary Fund programme by another 12 months, its finance minister said on Tuesday.
The Southern African copper-producing country has been trying to get its public finances back on track after running up a huge debt pile.
It said last month that it would ask the IMF to extend its loan programme, which is due to expire in October, but did not say how much more money it was seeking. So far it has received about $1.55 billion under the $1.7 billion Extended Credit Facility.
“The IMF programme gives the assurance that we are running things prudently,” Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane told a press conference.
“The (additional) financial support we are looking at is about $145 million,” Musokotwane added.
He said if Zambia were to end its IMF programme in October it would also lose some donor support that is contingent on an IMF programme being in place.
The IMF said via a spokesperson that the team working on Zambia was told of the government’s intention to request a 12-month programme extension and that discussions would take place in the context of the next review.
Zambia’s dollar bonds were slightly up in price on Tuesday, with the 2053 maturity up 0.5 cents to 73.25 on the dollar, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi and Rodrigo Campos in New York;Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Alison Williams and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
