Zambia Trades Blame With Bondholders Following Default
- Bondholders committed to engage, but reserve their rights
- Zambia defaulted last week as it seeks to restructure debt
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Zambia’s Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu said creditors were at least partly to blame for the country defaulting on one of its Eurobonds last week, while a group of bondholders said the missed payment risked setting a more adversarial backdrop for debt negotiations.
The southern African nation became the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign default after holders of the debt refused to grant it a six-month interest-payment freeze on Friday. The bondholders demanded more information on Zambia’s debts to Chinese lenders, but wouldn’t sign the necessary confidentiality agreements, Ng’andu said in an interview broadcast by state television.