LUSAKA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said on Wednesday that its intention to seek the refinancing of part of its Eurobond was not a signal that it has given up on an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package.
Talks for an IMF bailout package believed to be around 1.3 billion U.S. dollars have dragged without any conclusion, with the international lender expressing concern over Zambia's debt situation which has reached distress levels.
Zambia issued three Eurobonds between 2012 and 2014 amounting to 3 billion dollars.
Last Saturday, President Edgar Lungu during bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on a state-visit, revealed that a Turkish firm has expressed interest in refinancing part of country's Eurobond amounting to 750 million dollars which falls due in 2022.
He said talks will commence in September, 2018.
But critics have said the move to refinance was signal that the government had no hope that it will secure the IMF bailout package.
But Chief Government Spokesperson Dora Siliya said the decision to seek the refinancing of the Eurobond was not a sign of failed IMF talks.
She told reporters during her weekly press briefing that the move was part of government's wider agenda to seek various ways of dealing with its debt problem.
"It is within the mandate of the government to begin to talk to as many people as possible as a process to find solutions to the debt problem," she said.
