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The Patriotic Front (PF) has alleged that government’s debt restructuring efforts had failed, accusing the United Party for National Development (UPND) of only using the process as an excuse to borrow more.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, PF Chairperson for Information and Publicity, Emmanuel Mwamba, argued that Zambia’s economy was in decline and that poverty levels had worsened.
“His (President Hakainde Hichilema’s) debt restructuring achieved nothing except for a window to borrow more and has merely pushed the debt repayment to a future date,” Mwamba said.
He further pointed out that the World Bank Group recently downgraded Zambia from a lower-middle-income country to a low-income country, placing it among the ten poorest nations globally.
Mwamba described the country’s economic situation as a disaster, stating that the cost of living has deteriorated significantly.
“It has been four years since he (President Hichilema) took office, and what we have is a disaster. The cost of living is far worse than he found it, the worst in the last 30 years. The economy has been in constant decline for the past four years,” he said.
He also claimed that before the UPND took over, Zambia’s economy was growing at 4.5 percent, but under the current administration, debt has surged while economic growth has slowed to around 2 percent.
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