• Kwacha over the past week has not performed well.
• It has still continued losing some value, it lost about 0.16% as of last week.
• The actual external debt that the entire nation has according to World Bank is about USD27.3 billion.

An Economist says the Kwacha has not been performing well lately as it lost about 0.16 percent of value last week.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Gordon Mulenga said the depreciation was as a result of underlying fundamentals, which have remained unchanged.
Mr. Mulenga stated that one of the fundamentals driving the depreciation of the local unit is the high inflation rate which currently stands at 22.2 percent.
He also noted that there haven’t been any fundamental changes in the balance of payment, because the country continues to see a deficit in certain areas, as well as the high debt currently still being faced, which continues to be a major economic problem.
“Kwacha over the past week has not performed well because it has still continued losing some value, as it lost about 0.16 percent as of last week. And I think this was a result of underlying fundamentals, which still haven’t change.”
“Even if you look at the structure or model of what is actually driving this depreciation, I think number one on the list continues to be the inflation which is at 22.2 percent, which is quite high,” Mr. Mulenga noted.
Mr. Mulenga further described as alarming Zambia’s current external debt which according to the World Bank stands at about 27.3 billion US dollars, more than the 11 billion dollars government recently announced.
“And actually we know now that the actual external debt that the entire nation has according to the world bank, they estimate it to be at about USD 27.3 billion dollars, which is more than 11 billion dollars that we were informed by the officials, I think this is quite alarming,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mulenga said there is no sign that the Kwacha will appreciate any time soon, adding that the country can only see a significant gain in the currency if there is a huge reduction in inflation rate.
“Before we could actually see a significant reduction or an appreciation, in the kwacha itself, I think these underlying fundamentals, currently in the negative must start pointing in the positive direction. We need to see some quite serious reductions in inflation rate, it has to actually drop from the 22 that it is currently at, and we also need to see some improvement in terms of the mounting government debt which really needs to be dismantled,” he said.