
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday on a visit to Zambia it was critically important to restructure its debt, and she believes progress could be made after her frank talks last week with China, which is owed almost $6 billion by Lusaka.
Yellen added that Zambia's debt overhang was a drag on its whole economy and that China had been a barrier to resolving the southern African country's debt problem - government data showed Zambia's total external debt at $17 billion at the end of 2021.