Kanyama advises govt to stop borrowing to preserve foreign reserves
By Staff Reporter
Economist Chibamba Kanyama has advised government to suspend acquisition of external debt as a measure towards revamping the Bank of Zambia foreign reserves.
Kanyama said that low foreign reserves affect the country’s ability to service external debt.
“The country had always maintained import cover worth over three months and the current one and a half months’ worth of import cover is not enough,” he said.
He said that this could lead to a shortage of foreign currency and failure to import products from other countries ultimately adversely affect the formulation and implementation of policies.
Kanyama has since advised the Central Bank to create strategies that would work to rebuild the foreign reserves.
Bank of Zambia (BOZ) disclosed that the international reserves declined from $1.63 billion as at end of September 2018 representing almost two months of import cover to $1.5 billion end of June 2018, representing one and half months of import cover.
